Strawberry Jam
by Very-Berry-Baby
Summary: Another Victor Creed/OC story:- When a human girl is unwillingly brought into the secracy of Stryker's Team, she doesn't count on being there long.
1. Bar Fight

Dukes couldn't resist going back to the bar to see the girl he'd met the night before, the girl he'd hastily put on a pedestal and just as quickly inked onto the skin of his bicep. The place was busier today, observing the surroundings; he closed the doors behind him and walked in with slow steps.

At the bar, rotund men spilled over the worn barstools and rested their huge frames on their elbows, ignoring the sticky residual of liquid that clung to the counter surface obstinately. Dukes pushed forward when he saw a vacant stool, a fingerless glove lifted beckoningly in the air as he tried to order a drink, a large one.

"What can I get you Sweetie?" The only worker tonight asked him. She was a fragile girl but the vibrancy of her smile infected Dukes as he watched her lean on a beer pump, craning over to eagerly take his order.

"Three pints and a whiskey chaser" Dukes grumbled before leaning back, almost to the point where the stool gave out underneath him, as he searched for the girl. He missed the look of shock and good humoured shake of the bar maid's head as she spun around and began working on his order.

In a second the four glasses were in front of him and without looking at her, a wrinkled note was pulled from his pocket and placed in her awaiting palm.

"You looking for anyone in particular?" She said as she nodded to another punter and hurriedly pushed a glass to the nozzle of an upturned bottle of suspicious looking green alcohol.

"Girl that was working here yesterday, after twelve, Jenny?" Dukes gruffly answered as the last mouthful of his second beer was swilled pleasantly down his throat.

The woman made a thoughtful noise before clicking her thumb and index finger together and pointing at him like she'd just solved a puzzle,

"Ahh…that was your first time here, I wasn't working, explains why I haven't seen you before. She's on a break at the minute…one minute" Her nimble hand pulled a packet of crisps down from the shelf above her, Dukes couldn't help the subliminal part of his caveman brain that made stare at the revealed flesh of her stomach as she craned up.

When her hand grasped it, she quickly flicked her arm so the crisps transferred hands and then with perfect aim threw them to a wiry looking man that had his hands already out stretched and waiting for the snack.

Jogging out of sight, Dukes watched her leave and then immediately bring out his girl. They were smiling girlishly,

"Thanks Dill" Jenny said before manoeuvring around the bar and directly into Dukes's heavy embrace.

This was so much better than wasting any time back at the camp with the fellow members of Stryker's pack. The couple had relocated back to a cushioned, suede upholstered booth and remained there for a while, well past her allotted break time.

A smashing sound, glass, made Fred Dukes unlock his lips from the brunette next to him and look up at the chaos. Two men were embroiled in a fight, a fight that had momentarily been paused when the larger, sweat stained, heavy breathing drunk pulled back the bottle he'd been swigging from and crashed it into the other man's skull.

Then, as if a boxing match bell rang, the occupants of the little bar collided. Everyone's fists sprang into action, pounding and thwacking their nameless opponents. Jenny wriggled away from him and sprinted to the bar where her friend, the upbeat girl had served him his drinks was backed up by a wall of glasses.

Dukes determinedly walked up to the bar in her wake and began to pull the men apart, hitting them solidly so they lost conscious at once and fell to the floor. Jenny was leaning over the bar, in a space between the fighting but then her little frame fell clattering to the floor with her eyes shut tight in shock.

Fighting behind her were two thin, to the point where their bones nudged out against their skin covering, the one swung wildly with the already half shattered bottle in his hand. Surprisingly the man he was attacking dodged and the jagged bottle changed course, hitting Jenny squarely.

Dukes lost it then, every occupant fell unconscious at his boots but the two men came off worse, they were on the wrong end of his solid, unrelenting fists. He was panting heavily when he stood up; Jenny's friend was out from behind the bar and knelt to the floor with two fingers against the fallen woman's neck.

She was dead.

Dill, that was what Jenny called her, sprang back when she saw Dukes attention was on her and withdrew away from him. For a long moment Fred stared at the girl he had forever inked on his skin lay awkwardly on the floor, she wouldn't wake up. He'd never see her again.

But they had only met yesterday. A deep sigh raked his body and he cast his glare to the ceiling, looking for some sign or signal of where to go from here. The entire bar was silent, the jukebox stubbornly refused to give up its song – though Dukes couldn't name the song, only the barmaid and he remained conscious.

Movement made his eyes snap back to her, the little orange painted nails of her hand were shakily hitting the buttons of a brick like phone and as she held it to her ear Fred made his decision. Quickly he marched to her side and ripped the phone from her, chucking it aside, he couldn't have this girl blowing the cover Stryker insisted upon.

Meekly the girl let out a gasp when Dukes encircled her wrists in a single handed grip, pulled her to her feet and began to drag her from the unconscious tavern. When she began to scream, Dukes covered her mouth, as well as most of her face with a large hand and narrowed his black eyes at her.

As he sternly said, "Quiet" through gritted teeth, the girl nodded her head and looked up at him with watering, wide eyes.


	2. A Babysitter

Dukes was beginning to panic now, his gripped tightened like shackles against the girl's wrist, guards around the base were casting him suspicious glances but he ignored them. It was the stares of Stryker and the rest of the mutants in the squad.

The girl was terrified; her eyes were bright, wide and alert to these dangerously foreign surroundings. The men glowered at her, they encircled both her and Dukes, and Stryker too, when his arm threw the door open, pre-warning heavy boot clad footfalls which followed.

When Dukes finally released his grip on her, she began to hastily rub the red imprints that lingered in futile attempt to ease the soreness. Nobody asked her name, there was little point in introducing themselves when Stryker gave the undoubted signal for her death.

That didn't stop her from studying their faces thoroughly though, photographing their features mentally so there would be somebody to haunt during the afterlife.

One of them, she assumed they were all mutants, that leant against the dry wall indifferently looked up with quick snapping eyes when he felt the gaze of her eyes on him. Mockingly she watched the stubble sides of his face push forward into a noisy, exaggerated pucker. He blew her a kiss!

The girl focussed her attention back on Dukes and Stryker when the man of higher status began to speak,

"Just to be clear Fred, rather than letting her go because she might call the cops about the involvement of a mutant being involved in a bar fight homicide, you bring her back to base? A hidden government formed, secure location that less than a hundred people know about?"

A tremor of laughter flicked around the circle of mutants, Dukes furrowed his brows together before shrugging his shoulders; something made him bring her here. The shamed mutant moved to the side slightly as Stryker stepped forward.

"What's your name?"

"…Dylan, Dylan Black" she said slowly, looking at the floor beneath her rather than the slits of wicked eyes the man had. Dylan rubbed the side of her arm roughly; Dukes had taken her during one of her frequent bar shifts, the uniform provided anything but warmth. Paired with high waisted denim shorts, Dylan wore a tucked-in the plain white, body form t-shirt and simple white tennis shoes.

Stryker nodded his head slowly, "We should kill you, Dylan Black"

She froze up and snapped her head left to right to keep the mutants in her constant vision, the one that blew her a kiss was leaning away from the wall now. His muscles knotted together like tight wound springs.

Moisture began to fill up her eyes, 'At least I'll get to see Jenny again' Dylan thought, despite the positivity though, her eyes began to drown in water, spilling a salty tang to the air for the keener nosed mutants to smell.

Stryker's mouth was open slightly, inching wider slowly as his thoughts formed like cocaine fuelled game of Tetris; building with uneven edges and jarring corners but still creating the overall end shape.

"You know what?" Stryker said quickly with an out of place, malicious smile, "We're not going to, It just so happens that I'm in a good mood, and seeing that this group of…_interesting _characters are getting tired of the same war-programmed soldiers running around, this'll be a welcome sight"

Dylan brought her gaze up again; her eyes were open wide, dragging air to evaporate the still well contained layer of tears. Like a gasping fish her mouth moved soundlessly, no words came out.

The murmur between the mutants rose up again before Stryker lifted his hand and silenced them, a cruel smile played over his lips and the flat palmed hand pointed quickly to one of them. The mutant that had lent on the wall, blown her a kiss and been so eager to jump at the chance for blood spill.

"Victor" Stryker commanded, "She stays with you…wouldn't want the lady to try anything now would we?"

Dylan closed her eyes tightly shut when she heard the sickening remark, "Speak for yourself" come from the man with intense eyes and at least three guns strapped over his body. Working in a bar meant male banter being thrown around carelessly, in her direction or another. However this situation was so far from the enjoyable job Dylan once had, that the remark she would usually have smiled and winked playfully in response to, curled her little hands into fists.

"Interesting night then Dukes?" The cowboy like man with dark russet skin asked with good nature, the mass of Fred's body lumbered away from the group though, silent.

Horrible. Atrocious. Terrible. Horrendous. Repulsive

Those were only a few adjectives Dylan thought of to describe the night she had, interesting was not among the list, nor would it be as far as she was concerned. Realising the only person that had some sort of connection with her had left, Dylan's breathing sped up. Biting her lip she tried to remain calm, it was no use though, she had to grip her one arm painfully to control the breathes.

Stryker and Victor were in front of her, the main boss had dismissed everyone else as soon as Dukes departed from the gathering without warning. The pair were looking at her thoroughly.

"Make sure she stays in the base. I'll have thought of what to do by tomorrow." Stryker explained to his solider looking at him to judge the expression he wore. Victor kept his predatory gaze directly on Dylan, though her own eyes flickered uncomfortably as she tried to avoid the eye contact, and allowed the sharp point of his teeth to be revealed as he smiled.

"Pretty thing isn't she?" Stryker added off-hand, to himself more than either of the other two people that were in his company. "Sleep tight" The man said with humour pinched lips as he turned and left the room, looking back the couple.

Dylan still refused to acknowledge the man's fixed look, she only looked up when she heard the gruff, oil-like voice that oozed from the mouth of its equally rough owner.

"What an _interesting _idea" Said Creed, and Dylan's heart dropped further into the pit of her belly, simultaneously falling with her eyes when they stopped scrutinising the face of the man who was, to put it bluntly a babysitter.


	3. Pet

Victor's grip was harsher than Dukes, Dylan tripped over her feet as she was pulled out of room and outside. There were simple buildings everywhere but Dylan's eyes flickered around the occasional solider that watched her being hauled behind Victor. A small fire of anger ignited in her suddenly, Dylan was not the only human here and wouldn't be treated like a toy. Wrenching her hands away from him she yelled,

"I can walk!"

Surprised by the outburst from the seemingly meek, mild mannered woman, Victor released her hands and watched as she stumbled back off balance. Dylan couldn't recover the centre of gravity and quickly she fell back onto the muddy floor. A little chuckle came from Victor's throat and Dylan's face darkened; the cold night air whipped her cheeks red, moisture streaks glistened over her skin and mud had spattered over her on the impact.

Resiliently Dylan pushed herself up and haphazardly rubbed the muck from her hand onto the denim shorts that barely covered any of her legs. Ignoring the fact she spilt the previously caged tears, Dylan marched forward and paused at Victor's side. She refused to look him in the eye and kept her firm gaze straight ahead while waiting for Creed to take over the lead.

The light tips of Dylan's fingers worked away the tears from her face before Victor abruptly stopped at a small building, the size of a small apartment, leaving Dylan no time to stop; she awkwardly bumped into his back.

Turning around, Victor smirked at her and as if stung by a cattle prong, Dylan sprang away from the leering face. The grey door was unlocked, as though the mere presence of Victor Creed scared the latch into opening. Dylan didn't have any time to analyse the room in which she slowly shuffled into behind the intimidating man.

Her little body was forcibly pushed against the harsh concrete wall by one of his massive paws that chose to lie heavy in the curve between Dylan's neck and shoulder. Deep breaths flew from her mouth as her body began to panic.

Keeping his hand where it was, Victor stood an arm's length away from her and began to cast scrutinizing eyes over her face.

Dylan had a pretty face. The oval shape of it made the bones of her cheeks subtly stick out delicately; above them were her green eyes. In comparison to her other features, her large eyes took the focus as they shone brightly, the size of them making her appear trusting and youthful. Leading down from her inner eye was the narrow bridge of her button nose. The line continued before jutting out to accommodate the prominence of the Cupid's bow above Dylan's pink lips, now red from the rush of blood that hit the surface each time her incisor chewed nervously away at the flesh.

When Dukes saw Dylan, her hair was pulled back in neat ponytail that had bobbed up and down while she sped around the bar doing her job. Now, under Victor's gaze the dirty blonde, golden locks were free and although dishevelled from all the pulling from place to place, it hung full of volume down to her chest.

The examination of Dylan's body continued past her face, Victor made no attempt to hide the self-assured judging he wasted no time in given her. Even smirking wickedly when he saw the wind swept pink tint to her cheeks darken further with an embarrassed blush.

Creed tipped his head with approval, his thumb nail elongated against her skin and dangerously caressed the thick vein of her neck. Dylan strained against the touch.

"Not bad" He said.

Harshly Dylan slapped away his arm and under the sudden force, the nail nicked the surface of her skin, its sharpness quickly allowing a small dribble of blood escape. With a gasp Dylan stemmed the flow by holding her fingers against the little wound, watching as Victor laughed.

"Hurting people is funny?" Dylan asked incredulously, removing her fingers so she could inspect how much blood she was losing. It wasn't much.

"Every time" Victor said simply, this girl was going to be fun. Quickly, clad still in his usual military like clothing, he harshly lay on top of the bed, propping his hands behind his head in a pose of assured triumph.

Dylan didn't move and just gave him a puzzled look that quickly transferred to a look of horror when she did finally look around the room. It was simple, very simple. All that occupied the room was a bed. There was a huge pile of similar army clothing in the corner, in line with several strewn boots and random empty beer bottles that littered the dark floor.

There was no way on this earth Dylan was going to lay next to him.

"You can sleep at the bottom of the bed…on the floor" Victor said, smirking with revealed fangs and relaxed closed eyes.

"I'm not a dog" Dylan snarled out.

Victor popped one eye open, "Yet Stryker and Dukes have both given you to me…like a pet"

Dylan rubbed the side of her arm self-consciously and began to bite her lip again. She noticed an open door over the other side of the room, and through the dim light she made out the simple porcelain of a bathroom.

She avoided Victor's eyes when she stiffly and cautiously picked her way towards it. As she got in the small room, the light flickered on automatically. Looking back she saw Victor was propped up off the bed, eyes open, watching her.

She was not sleeping at the foot of his bed.

The fact she was dirty and still wearing her shoes, Dylan stepped into the bath and lay down, resting her head against the slope of white chipped porcelain and locking eyes with Victor. A deep bellow of laughter took over his body and Dylan quickly turned away from him.

Tightly she knotted her hands in the material of her no longer white t-shirt and let silent tears for the actions of the day slide freely down the planes of her face.


	4. Run Rabbit

Black smothered Dylan's vision when her eyes struggled open from the light slumber she fought to fall into, an escape from her current improvised bed. Faint glimmers of light made her able to roughly make out the mass of Victor on the bed. Keeping still she watched the steady rising and falling of his chest. He was asleep.

She flinched when her limbs cracked out of the stiff lock the cramped bathtub forced them into and snapped to look at Victor. Dylan let out a faint sigh and gingerly crept from the bathroom, into the bed room. Slowing down she crouched lower, eyes focus directly on the door as Dylan came closer to her freedom. Dylan extended her arm slowly; the tips of her fingers graced the cool door knob before-

"Funny thing about mutations-" Victor's smooth voice made her whirl around and push herself defensively back, hitting the wall harshly as she looked at him. "-they always work to someone else's disadvantage"

"I'm starting to get that impression" Dylan confirmed with hardness overtaking the usual warmth in her eyes. "Only that someone else is me, for as long as I'm here-"

"Which is going to be for the foreseeable future" Creed said as he lifted himself off the bed and pulled his boots on roughly, not bothering with the laces, and walked in front of her. "I'm not sure you understand the scale of the situation you've walked into Princess" He continued.

Dylan flinched at the grip Victor took her chin in, between his thumb and index finger, her mouth twisted sourly as she analysed his words.

"I did not walk…I was dragged, by you and Fred" She stated and glanced at Victor whose one eyebrow flinched with thought as he nodded. Creed pushed her aside and wrenched open the door, signalling she needed to leave.

With her arms crossed, Dylan marched out of the door and waited for him to do the same. With long strides he took the lead, following the same path as last night, back to the big room where she had first saw them all.

As Victor strode on, Dylan began to slow and seizing an opportunity that might not come again, she spun around and began to pelt away, running with as much force as she could spike into her weak muscles.

When Victor looked lightly over his shoulder, he watched her little legs scurry away driven further by her arms which tried to pump more energy into every stride. Long talons began to extend from Victor's already sharp nails like second nature, he cricked his head sharply and lashed around fully.

Like the animal his mutation allowed him to be, Victor ran in huge strides on all fours, he vaulted from building to building, dragging out the chase for his own pleasure.

"Run rabbit!" He shouted at her mockingly before deciding to drop in front of her, grabbing Dylan's ankle and making her trip forward, falling for a second time because of him. From the heavy sprinting, Dylan stayed still and started to inhale desperately for the oxygen her muscles begged for.

Victor stood to his full height above her lent down to grab her, but Dylan hit out, striking his chest and arms furiously. Creed frowned at the pathetic assault and restrained her arms and hands. When the rough surface of his skin gripped hers, Dylan tried to wiggle away but instead she was tossed in the air and thrown harshly over his shoulders.

"I love it when they run" Victor said offhandedly and walked to their original destination, clinking the enamel of his teeth like china as he amused himself by clamping his jaws together.

When they entered one of the larger buildings, Victor patted Dylan's thigh like a prize in front of the other men. "We're definitely keeping this one"

Stryker chuckled before John piped up with a strong voice to put her down. Victor turned quickly so Dylan had to grip his shoulders in order to remain balanced,

"I'm in charge of the broad Johnny boy, so _sit down" _He growled out lowly, none the less though, Victor put her on the floor and grimaced when Dylan pushed herself away from him violently. Angered, Creed caught her forearm and gripped it, the points of his claws digging into her skin.

He only let go when Stryker began to speak in his usual slick oiled tone,

"I want you to take the girl and make sure that no one comes snooping around looking for her. Take care of it, and bring her back. I can see the positive affect Miss Black is having on everyone already"

In one of the base's jeeps, Dylan sat in the passenger's seat with her hands curled in her lap and feet planted firmly in front of her. Her hair was puffed up, more than usual against the leather head rest. Dylan's eyes looked as the driver's door opened and Victor climbed in.

"Have you thought about how stupid this is?" Dylan asked him, she propped one leg onto the seat and gripped it close to her. "Your boss is kidnapping me because I've seen this place…In case everyone has overlooked this, I don't have any connections in the world of government. Who am I going to call? Ghostbusters?"

"The base gets boring, guess Stryker wants his best men kept _amused" _Victor smacked the steering wheel of the vehicle rhythmically before settling his one hand on top of the leather and looking at Dylan's aghast expression.

"_Fine" _She spat, "I'll walk around in a clown costume twenty four seven and do some juggling for everyone, see if that keeps everyone in this lunatic situation entertained"

Dylan kept quiet for the rest of the ride then, merely stating with complete disinterest 'Left' or 'Right' at the appropriate moments with a lazily lifter arm. Victor remained silent as well, disappointed that his companion chose to keep her mouth shut after the brief rant.

The sheathed claws on his hands were itching for an excuse to be unleashed, any excuse. Victor touched one of the pointed teeth in his mouth, it didn't matter. Dylan would give him an excuse at some point; her mouth ran away with her occasionally when she forgot what kind of mess she was in.

The next time it did, like lightening his claws would be out and ready – It would be worth it.


	5. Paper Boy

The building where they ended up was a stone's throw away from the bar; Dylan refused to look at it as they passed. It was entirely red brick, though weather beaten, describing it as red brick seemed too generous. More accurately it was a dull, rigid building made from dirty brown bricks that crumbled upon anybody's touch, no matter how light. A rusted black fire escape latched itself onto the side of the ugly place, Dylan headed straight for it instead of walking through the large doorway.

"Keeping a low profile?" Victor asked her, this place seemed too dark for her, even with freshly purpled bruises Dylan, with her light skin and hair stuck out.

"I dislike the neighbours'" Dylan stated. The ladder connecting the fire escape to the floor was above them, curling up her hand, Dylan hit one of the bars that held the structure in place. Vibrations rattled the structure and noisily the ladder crashed at her feet. As she climbed up, Victor scowled distastefully at the structure, and vaulted up easily onto the platform.

Dylan gave him a shocked look, flickered her gaze over the railing to double check the height hadn't decreased magically and walked past him with a shake of her head.

'That would come in handy' She thought, wondering how a simple mutation in the gene pool would affect her life. The top shelves in the supermarket were always a problem.

Passing one window, Dylan quickly increased her steps when the occupant inside noticed her and Victor. At the next window, the room behind was dark, all the lights were turned off but Dylan easily pulled back the frame and walked inside.

As she hurried inside, Victor quickly did the same to make sure that she wasn't doing anything that could be regarded as rule breaking. That wasn't the case though; Dylan simply tapped the light switch in order to illuminate the room.

Leaning against the beige wall she smiled as the features of her little apartment made an instant feeling of belonging creep over her. Moving from the wall, Dylan moved into the kitchen and collected a tall glass of water before guzzling it down quickly and getting another. Victor could still see her; the entire apartment was open plan.

Sweetness tinged the air when Dylan moved on from the water and bit an unaware apple, taken from an overflowing fruit bowl. She remembered that she wasn't alone then and rubbed the trickle of apple juice from her mouth.

"Um…would you like anything?"

The offer made Victor crease his brow, this girl really was odd, who would put good manners into consideration when entering a conversation with a member of the team that kidnapped her.

"I'm polite" Dylan snapped when he didn't answer her, the comment stabbing accusingly at him, probably because of all the man handling.

"You've got a job to do" Victor said sternly, he plucked the house phone from the glass table a foot away from him and threw it at her. Dylan's body spasmed to catch it before it smacked her in the face and she scowled at Victor who began to paw over the belonging in the home. He picked up photo frames, ornaments, magazines, scattered jewellery, uncovered DVDs, inspected them, and cast them aside. As he perused, Victor instructed her,

"Call anyone who would notice if you were gone, make up an excuse…a good one" He added when Dylan looked at him dubiously. Swallowing the last possible morsel of fruit, Dylan hit the buttons in a memorised sequence.

'999, what's your emergency?' Victor's head snapped to look at her when he heard the professional, nasal tone at the receiving end of the telephone call. Frowning he stomped over to her.

"Yes, hello, I'm being held against my will by a psychotic ma-" The phone was wrenched from her hand and Victor's large hand encircled her neck and squeezed testily, Dylan's mocking, falsely confident voice was silenced.

"Real funny" Victor growled out, his arm tensed as he picked Dylan's weight off the floor easily. A smirk covered his face revealing the canine fangs occupying his mouth as he watched her little hands furiously try to get his grip to release. "Humans are so…interesting, it's pathetic how weak you are…how frail"

Easing up to make sure the girl remained conscious, Victor put her feet back on the floor but kept his grip around her throat, pushing her so her shoulder blades connected with the fridge. The tips of his nails made four pin pricks in her skin, immediately causing welts that respectively filtered through four drops of crimson blood.

"We can do this the easy way or the hard way Frail" Victor warned with a growl, using the demeaning nickname for her with relish, "Trust me, I like the hard way more but being part of the government makes me _diplomatic" _

Dylan nodded her head and gasped when she was released.

Her hands were shaking when she hit the buttons of the phone a second time, Victor picked up where he left off snooping around the place, his point had been made. Yet half of his senses were focussed on listening to the conversations coming from the girl.

"Yeah, I'm going to be taking my vacation time now Bill if that's okay. Don't tell the police you've heard off me then, I can't talk to them about what happened. The fight was like any other, Jenny was in the wrong place at the wrong time. No I don't know when I'll be back." Her voice was strained but it thickened quickly and sternly added. "Give my job away then, you irritating little worm!"

The button ending the call was pressed and Victor chuckled at the snide insult Dylan gave the man, again the phone was put into action and he listened for the second time. Dylan's voice recovered well, she masked her discomfort well Victor noticed when he heard the upbeat chords.

"Miss Wilson…Hey! It's Dylan, I know this is giving you short notice but I won't be able to watch Max anymore…for the time being. Yes everything's fine, just some personal stuff I can't get out of. Okay…yes I will, thank you for understanding. Would you be able to make arrangements for the two Jessop twins as well? I know their mom won't answer my call. Thanks again - Bye"

She used the phone for a third time but the irritating robot voice of the answering machine greeted her. After that Dylan gave up.

"Whatever this job it is that Stryker wants me to do, I hope it has a wage slip attached to it. Thanks to you and the mutant band wagon, I just lost three jobs"

Victor grunted in response before a sudden knock at the door brought both of them into alert mode, quickly Dylan run at the door, eager for whoever was behind it to not be slashed into ribbons by Victor who also was at the door.

"Hey-woah, whose this?" The man behind the white door asked curiously, from behind Dylan's body Victor curled his lip as he growled. Sensing the building anger, Dylan put her arms behind her back and took a hold of both Victor's clawed hands. She didn't wince when the sharpness cut her lightly.

"This is…um, Johnny this is my…friend Victor. He and I are going away for a while. I won't be needing you anymore. Sorry I couldn't give you more notice, okay, sorry, we have to pack"

Hurriedly, as the claws hurt her more, Dylan slammed the door in the boy's confused face and let go of Victor's hands only to be pinned against the wall for a second time.

The small act of her trying to restrain him fuelled Victor's anger, "I don't like being hidden from people Princess, last time someone tried to hid these-" His clawed fingers waved dramatically in Dylan's face. "-People got hurt. So don't try to pretend I don't exist if your boyfriend knocks again"

"Paperboy" Dylan corrected in a whisper, looking at the door and thanking the lord when a brief moment past and no knock came.


	6. New Employment

Stryker allowed Dylan time to shower and freshen up with a change of clothes when she and Victor returned back to base. She was thankful for that; normally she took a lot of pride in her appearance. Being a bar maid, she had to.

Dylan walked into the room, she took a lot longer than she usually would but none the less she strode into the room she was instructed to go to. Stryker was there, as well as all the other members of Team X.

Wade wolf whistled lowly when she walked in clothed in a simple black vest and grey track suit bottoms. Dylan crossed her arms over her arms a ducked her head from the attention but smiled slightly at the childish action.

The room they were in completely juxtaposed the otherwise millenarian buildings and room layouts she had previously been in. There were grey sofas, connected like a square with one line missing facing a high placed large television and in the centre of the room, a large dining table. Dylan couldn't imagine the group sitting down to a family like Sunday lunch but she had seen worse things.

What surprised her more was the kitchen at the back of the room. It was only small but equipped enough for a small amount of people. Dylan had seen at least twenty more men on the base, just military uniformed men.

Most of the men were sat on the grey sofas, watching Stryker in the usual dictator like stance in front of them. Dylan perched on the end of the sofa near Dukes. Victor was sat on the back of the sofa, his feet in front of him where everyone else was sat.

"So as you all know Dylan has joined our little group-"

'By force' She thought, Dylan smiled falsely, thinking terrible thoughts about this malignant man.

Stryker continued on smoothly, "So I've decided as a permanent state of employment, she's going to help specifically to this squadron. You've got a new cleaner and cook"

A smile crossed over Stryker's face, and a placid expression filtered over Dylan's own face. She had expected much worse than that. No doubt the fact she was a woman would provide more visual appeal to the men rather than the greasy, stocky, fat cook that the other men had. Wade stood up suddenly and sprinted from the room, everyone looked after him but in a second he was back with something behind his back.

"Please, for the love of God can she wear this?" Revealing the object, Dylan's mouth dropped open as he produced a hideously, slutty maid's outfit that was fit for any purpose other than actual work. One of the men grabbed the television remote at his side and aimed it perfectly so it struck Wade in the temple.

"Don't be so disrespectful" Logan said firmly mirroring the curt thank you nod that Dylan gave him. A smile crossed over Dylan's face as she thought aloud,

"Good to know you have a very open minded team, cross dressing soldiers was one thing I didn't expect to get pulled into"

The group chuckled at the quick remark, "I think she's going to fit in here"

A low growl emitted from Victor's throat when Wade made to move anywhere close to Dylan, she leaned away from the man she insulted. Stryker nudged for her to follow him, Dylan reluctantly did and grimaced when he began droning onto her.

"This may not be the most fancy job-"

"I was a babysitter and a barmaid, I don't have much experience of _fancy" _Dylan interrupted, leaving out the part where she would say 'Not like I'm going to have much chance to experience it now anyway, thanks to you'.

Stryker frowned at the interruption but nonetheless proceeded,

"You're only here because I saw you could provide some mild entertainment to the Team. Just clean and cook." He opened the small closet they had come to, cleaning products filled it, Dylan made a sour face.

"What happened to the last unfortunate janitor?" She asked, picking up one of the mops by the wooden handle and examining it.

"Unfortunate things" Stryker answered spitefully as he walked away, leaving Dylan to throw the mop away from her and look from the shrinking figure of her new boss to the closet disgustedly.

Taking the hint Dylan began to figure out how she would go about this new job. Bradley, the sweet electricity mutant walked past her, transferring a crisp map over to Dylan who thanked him with a wide smile.

Wade's room was the most disgusting thing Dylan had ever seen in her life. There were huge piles of filthy clothes over the floor, beer bottles, crisp packets, mud soaked boots and a variety of nameless stains covered everything.

As she opened the door, the overwhelming smell of socks hit her. Dylan grasped at the door frame, crumpling down as she fought her stomachs natural reaction to be sick.

"Holy shit." She breathed deeply after taking a step backwards out into the clean air. Dylan gasped and repeated, "Holy shit"

"Yeah…I've been working on that for quite a while. Who knew it would result in this perfect little scenario?" Wade leant over her shoulder and whispered in her ear with a chuckle. Dylan looked at him with disbelief.

"Does your mutation block up your nasal passages?" Dylan asked incredulously, it really was revolting. Wade laughed and slung an arm around Dylan's small shoulders, the gesture was relaxed but it became awkward when a voice whipped out.

"Shouldn't you be sharpening your sticks Wade?"

Victor appeared behind them, Wade let his head fall away dramatically with a sigh as he pulled back the arm around Dylan's shoulders. Dylan noticed the slight twitch of Victor's hand as his claws inched out slowly.

Victor laughed when he saw Dylan's face still aghast at the hideous task in front of her,

"I've worked in a bar; part of that job was cleaning the men's toilet. _That _is abysmal" Dylan said to fill the silence that Victor was obviously comfortable with and watched as he gave a wordless growl and walked away. She did catch the parting words he spoke though, her face fell dramatically.

"You haven't seen Dukes's yet"


	7. Where's The Food?

Victor went back to his room late that night, his nose sniffed suspiciously as he neared the door and walked in. The dishevelled mess he'd left behind was evaporated, there were fresh stacks of clothes folded neatly in the corner, the trash was removed and the fresh undertone of lemon cleaner product laced the room.

The effort was wasted on him, but it was the source of the cleaning that caught his attention. Dylan was in here, he smelt her, and notably she was no longer using the bath as a bed. On his bed she lay sprawled out, exhausted from the work.

Dylan's mouth was agape and her hair covered her face messily, Victor walked to the side of the bed, removed his boots and tossed them aside. Standing back up he used his foot to push Dylan away from him, so much that her body over balanced and crashed to the floor. Expecting an onslaught of abuse in his direction, Victor lay down and popped his head over the side to look at her.

Dylan's chest remained in a steady, undisturbed rising and falling despite the awkward position her fall resulted in.

Humans were so interesting.

In the awkward position Dylan remained until the morning where she woke and hastily glanced around her, wondering why she was on the floor and cursing Victor when his smirk told her exactly why.

In the room with the grey sofas, Dylan had named it 'The Living Room' though it held little of the soft comfort her own self decorated living room apartment had, she began rummaging around the kitchen area.

Everything was bare.

"Why is there no damn food here?" Dylan's stomach groaned in agreement as she shouted into the depths of the massive fridge that held no one morsel of food.

"Why don't you ask the cook?"

John had appeared at her side on the same search and looked at her with lifted brows, leaning his arm over the side of the fridge. "Because I have no idea who the cook is!" Dylan yelled, looking in the fridge again as if someone had the mutation to magically create a bagel out of the air.

"Have a look in the mirror toots" Dukes called as he entered the room.

"Oh yeah"

Making a thoughtful noise she slammed the fridge door shut, and walked over to Dukes.

"I need the keys to your car" Stating that, Dylan held open her palm expectantly. Dukes, John and Victor stared at her bold figure; she kept her hand there and sighed with a humourless smile before speaking firmly.

"You want food; I need a car to get it"

Begrudgingly Dukes struck his meaty hand into his pocket and pulled out one key, sticking it into her palm and grimacing when Dylan curled her fingers around the metal and tipped her head.

"I need money to get your boys food" Dylan spoke into the phone attached to the wall, looking at the laminated sheet of paper next to it that had different important people's numbers on it. Victor scratched the side of his face with an elongated claw while he listened.

"They can't go around saving the world with no fo- lovely, I'll be right by" A chortle came from Bradley – Saving the world eh? Move over superman. Dylan scowled deeply as Stryker had the last word that respectively made Victor grimace. "Fine" Her teeth gritted together before slamming the phone against its holder and walking out the door.

Victor followed suit, hearing Stryker's voice insist that she go to get food with 'her keeper'.

"You know something Princess, I'm starting to get sick of following you around. Especially when you're acting like someone stole your kitten and drown it"

Dylan scowled when Stryker's hand popped around his door and handed her a small plastic card that would cover the money spent on food. Walking more determinedly forward, Dylan countered Victor's remark.

"That's a vile comparison"

At the side of the car, Dylan gasped when Creed took a stern hold of her arm and manoeuvred the keys out of her hand and into his own. "You're insane; you can't keep hurting me every time I say something you don't like. It's rude"

They were in the car now and Victor's hand clamped down on her small thigh, "I left courtesy in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century where it belongs"

Dylan gasped at the grip on her thigh and pricking claws as well as the revelation to Victor's age, her eyes studied over his face intriguingly.

"So you're old" She stated with shock, still studying his face for wrinkles or any sign of his age. A moment's pause passed between them and unable to stand it, Dylan turned to him, ready launch an investigation.

"Tell me about your mutation"

Victor glanced at her while he leaned against the car's seat and drove steadily with one hand, lightening up on the accelerator. His eyes were suspicious yet when Dylan meekly allowed the sides of her mouth to tug up slightly, he spoke.

"I'm a feral. It means I get pointy claws" Victor extended his nails and drummed them methodically over her thigh. "All the better to slice you with. I can't die, which is a good quality when you fight in as many wars as I have, and you've seen me run"

"I like it, it suits you"

Victor looked at her, this was girl continually surprised him. The fact her injuries spanned only to a few cuts and bruises showed that. A grunt emitted from his throat in response.

"What exactly does the team do Victor?"

"Missions. Whatever it is that Stryker says. Usually it involves making certain people do certain things; keep quiet, say the right things, authorise other missions. It varies." Victor explained with a tight voice as he slammed down on the accelerator again, he could run fast than this car.

"I can't believe how long you've been alive. Seen the world change and develop."

"The world hasn't changed; people live, people die. It's always been the same." Victor said bluntly, the comment silenced Dylan's inquiries and she chose to look out the window at the blurring landscape.

Angry for at her silence, the tight grip on the steering wheel Victor had increased tenfold, as did the grasp on Dylan's thigh. With an unassuming gentile motion, Dylan moved her hand over the paw that held her.

Victor looked at her, and then to the pale hand which covered his own, momentarily he allowed himself to enjoy the cool silk of the touch before putting his hand back to the steering wheel tightly.


	8. Kid

"I want my own room"

Late in the afternoon, Dylan sat on of the grey sofas with her legs tucked under her comfortingly when she realised the day would come to an end and the hard floor of Victor's room would be her bed.

Stryker turned his head to look back at Dylan as he held the door open ready to make his exit, his gaze flicked over to Victor's stalking figure in the corner.

"She stays with me" The tone in Victor's voice was definitive and a smirking Stryker left the room instantly. Folding her arms stubbornly over her chest, Dylan collapsed against the sofa material.

"I'm going to have spinal problems"

Sluggishly Dylan moved from her spot on the sofa and walked determinedly into the kitchen, her arms furiously shot out; opening cupboards, jars and buttering bread as she made herself a sandwich.

The white counter top felt cool through the thin material of her shirt as Dylan leaned against it and watched Victor cautiously as he strode over to her. Taking a bite of the sandwich, Dylan raised it up to Victor's face as she offered it to him.

Half the sandwich disappeared in his mouth as he took a huge bite.

"You making everyone sandwiches?" Dukes asked as he pounded into the room with clumsy strides that made his body sway from side to side. Smiling Dylan nodded and said politely,

"If you'd like one"

Just as Dylan turned around to start the task, the door slammed open and Stryker, followed by Bradley entered the room rapidly. "Get the rest of the boys"

Dukes hurried back down the corridor and Dylan looked at Victor for some form of explanation, "A mission?" He asked, keeping his eyes on Stryker, who rigidly nodded.

In a matter of moments, the entirety of Team X was formed and quickly they began to leave the room. Each of them grunting a farewell to Dylan, when Dukes past her she handed him the sandwich she'd rushed to make with a small smile.

"Don't be an idiot" That was the snub goodbye Victor had given her with pursed lips.

"Missing you already" Dylan called after them despite the fact the door had already crashed shut behind them. Without the boys, this place was extraordinarily boring, not that she was complaining. All the constant battering of secret governments, missions, assassins, spies and God knows what else she'd overheard made Dylan relish the human activity that occupied her time before she was abducted; watching television.

Hours went by and slowly a warm drowsiness pulled shut her eyelids, slowed her breathing and still on the comfortable sofa, Dylan fell asleep. It was a dreamless sleep, a lulling oblivion which relaxed her sore muscles and refreshed her entire body.

She didn't know what time she woke up, but it was heavy footsteps and low chattering that caused it. When the boys opened the door, it was cold and the draft shivered through Dylan's skin, soaking into her bones.

No light came through the door; instead the harsh synthetic bulb lit up and illuminated the room brightly. A grumble of protest came from Dylan as she rubbed the sleep out her blurry eyes and watched the men walk in.

"Waited up for me baby?" Wade asked as strode in first and situated himself on the top of the sofa with a teasing smirk. Dylan gave him an incredulous look, stating, "I was sleeping"

One by one the group came back into the room, most didn't stay though, they grabbed a drink and left straight away. When Victor walked in last he walked behind Wade sneakily before lashing out a hand and pulling him back. Off balanced and surprised, Dylan chuckled at his stunned expression as he fell to the floor harshly.

When he awkwardly rushed to his feet, Victor stared him out with pointed eyes,

"Keep your guard up kid"

Begrudgingly Wade dusted off his shoulders, Logan was laughing heartily at the situation before he too left the room. "Someone needs to train the dogs" He spat out upset when Stryker finally came through the door.

Dylan gasped when he wasn't the only person to walk in. Agent Zero was frog marching a small little boy into the imposing room. The boy's eyes were scrunched together tightly, Zero was holding the boys shoulder, steering him before gripping him to make him stop.

She quickly walked around the furniture to the group, looking at Stryker Dylan frowned and asked him quickly,

"Why is there a small child here?"

Hearing a new female voice, the little boy snapped open his eyes and bolted away from Zero, launching both his arms around her on leg in a tight grip. Dylan held his head comfortingly and rubbed her thumb over the soft black curls of his hair.

"One of our acquaintances needs a tad harder persuasion to co-operate" Stryker answered quickly, giving her a flickering look before he spun around and left the room, calling back, "Since you're here, you can look after him"

"The woman of the house" Zero added as he held the door ajar, waited for Stryker to leave and followed suit.

Dylan stretched around to look at Victor, sitting where Wade had been previously. He was looking at her critically, her palms lightly pressed against the boys ears so he would be unaware of their conversation.

"They took a kid?" Dylan asked imploring an answer she knew already.

"He won't be here long, as soon our man does what he's told, we'll take him back" Victor answered as he scratched his forehead with elongated claws. Dylan bit her lip harshly before asking, "What time is it?"

It was two o'clock in the morning.

Dylan knelt down to the little boy's level and smiled at him warmly, "Hey Sweetie, what's your name?" she asked softly. The child answered, but he'd struck one plump little fist in front of his mouth blocking the words and making them jumble together. Dylan lightly removed it and he spoke again. Now he began to cry, breathing unevenly as he tried to stop when Dylan soothed him.

"It's Noah" Victor interjected with a growl, the kid was hurting his ears, Dylan shot him a thankful smile.

"Alright Sweetie, I'll take you back to your mom as soon as I can okay?" When his tears stopped, Dylan picked him up and began to rub his back with one hand. She walked to the kitchen area and began to search for different items. "Would you like anything Victor?" Dylan asked politely before returning to her original task when he shook his head.

Warm hot chocolate filled a small cup and quickly the young boy had drained it and was now nestled into Dylan's side. Like a novelty car toy, his head began to bob before falling into Dylan's lap. Absently she began twirling the black curls around her fingers.

"I didn't think your missions would go to this extent" Dylan confessed to Creed, he looked at her with a smirk.

"A secret government organisation, one that won't let you leave in case you squeal? Exactly how far do you think we would go to get what we want?"

To that Dylan didn't have an answer, so she settled for shrugging her shoulders and flicking the television back on but ensuring the volume was incredibly low so as not to disturb Noah. When she allowed silence to encase them, Victor stood and walked over to the door.

"A lot of collateral damage" Dylan said finally, hearing a gruff noise of acknowledgement before the door shut behind him.


	9. Hit Her

"Look at Betty Crocker go!" Wade commented loudly as he joined her and the abducted kid in the huge living room. Dylan slammed a frying pan on the stove, joining the other four, and tipped three individual spoons separately onto the sizzling surface. She laughed with a breath in response,

"I don't think Betty has much to worry about"

Noah was sat at the table, his little hands quickly breaking up the soft, sweet pancakes before hastily devouring the pieces and popping the accompanying fruit in his mouth. Dukes walked in behind Zero then, "Something smells awesome" the large man said.

Again Dylan laughed, she believed him though, there was no way that he would be awake at this hour if the food didn't force him. Serving up the rest of the food, Dylan smiled as her dysfunctional family feasted on a variety of breakfast. Logan looked up and nodded at her, "S'good" He complimented.

Dylan looked dubiously as he popped the final morsel of sausage in his mouth, she didn't miss the slight tinge of charcoal on it. "Keep an eye on him for me?" Looking over at the boy, Logan nodded; Dylan felt assured that he wouldn't be hurt. If there was any time he'd be safe it's when all the mutant's minds were on food.

Quickly she opened the door and shivered as the aggressive wind passed over her, she jogged to Victor's room and slowed down when she noticed Creed exiting the room. "Where you going?" He asked her roughly when she was near, Dylan nudged her head in the direction of his room. Victor raised an eyebrow and Dylan rolled her eyes,

"I need to get changed…you kept my bag in your room"

Smirking, Creed opened the door again and let it swing open for her to walk in, when she got to the large bag in the corner and bent over to rummage through it, she noticed the wind was still cooling her. At the door Victor watched her and she frowned while standing upright again, fresh clothes in her hand.

"I don't need supervision, besides you might wanna go and get some food, Dukes is on his own personal mission to eat over five pounds of pancake before ten thirty" Dylan frowned when he stayed there, tossed back her head and sighed before storming into the bathroom and slamming it shut in a futile act to get away from him.

Stryker eyed them when the pair walked in together, quickly Dylan searched for Noah when she saw the man and sighed when he was sat on the sofas. Addressing the entire room, Stryker began to speak,

"Our man came through at three forty five am last night, everything has been alleviated and you'll be able to take the boy back now. Victor you know where"

"Just like that?" Bradley asked

"Children are like the soft spots of a peach. When you put on any pressure, the fruit bruises" Dylan shook her head with a sour expression and easily walked over to Noah, picked him up and walked back out of the door with him resting on her hip.

Victor caught the keys Stryker tossed to him and followed her quickly.

Dylan didn't enjoy the car ride, it was too quiet, Noah only asked her where they were going and, when she confirmed they were taking him home, the child remained silent with only a few babbles of inaudible narration.

The home they arrived at was plush. It was at the more respectable end of the town. The door way was arched and framed by clean white stone, extenuating the gold polish that glinted off the door's handle. The windows were large, easily able to spot Dylan coming out of the plate-less black car and collecting Noah, walk up to the front door. Victor remained in the car.

The door was ripped open before Dylan could lay a finger on it, quickly the child was torn from her grip and placed on a different hip. The woman looking at her was well dressed in a smart clean cut white dress, her hair was perfectly restrained in a bun, pulled so tight that a blue vein in the woman's forehead strained under the tan skin.

The middle aged woman's pretty face twisted in scowl as she looked at Dylan. Victor watched from the car, his eyes easily making out the small figures in front of him. He quickly tapped down the window to hear what was being said.

"Does it make you feel good to take children away from their mother's? Does it?" The woman's voice strained and impatiently her brow furrowed in a scowl when Dylan looked at her in shock at the misplaced tirade.

Suddenly the woman lashed out, sending her palm directly at Dylan's cheek. Stumbling back Dylan held onto her stinging face before bring her hand down slowly.

'Do something frail' Victor thought angrily as he clenched the tight leather of the steering wheel and growled lowly.

Looking up Dylan stared at the woman with harsh eyes, "Maybe if your husband was not getting himself involved in things bigger and scarier than him, your son wouldn't have to get involved either"

Quickly Dylan spun on her heel and marched back to the car, wrenching open the door and throwing herself into the seat angrily.

"You should have hit her" Victor stated with a slight scolding tone as he pulled Dylan's face towards him, angling the skin so he could see the red tinge that now splashed over the pale skin. Dylan smiled and moved her head back to look ahead as they drove.

"We took her kid, she was bound to be pissed – What did the father do anyway?" She asked him interested as to why a man would let a situation go as far as to include your son.

Victor kept his eyes on the road, driving at the usual breakneck speed that still did nothing to thrill him the way embracing his mutation did.

"He organises mutant protest groups"

Dylan made a disgusted face and inhaled deeply, "Now I do wish I hit her…my right hook has been out of practise for a couple of days though" She lifted her hand and inspected the knuckles before flicking her eyes to Victor with a small smile.

Working in the bar she did, and living in the neighbourhood she did, Dylan wasn't naïve about brawling.


	10. Better The Mutant You Know

"Another one?" Logan asked gruffly, he lit up the cigar in his hand and brought it to his lips as he doggedly walked out of the room, following Bradley. Dukes smirked, "A good one?" he asked when a sparkle of mischief came into Stryker's eyes.

Wade was running down the corridor quickly, he sighed in disbelief, "Sweet!" he stretched the word and pulled one of the swords from its scabbard. The group was walking down the main path between buildings when they saw Dylan walking towards.

"Another one?" She asked when they reached her.

Wade picked her up high and she held onto his shoulders with shock, "A good one!" He answered her, shaking her little body before putting her back on the floor and practically skipping forward.

"Bye guys" She said as they walked away, she turned back around and started to walk to the main room. Enjoying the fresh air Dylan inhaled deeply and ran her hands through her hair, pulling it back so was contained in a bobbing pony tail that fell to the centre of her shoulder blades, like a blonde waterfall.

Without warning, a sudden force landed millimetres in front of her, in shock Dylan crumpled back and brought her hands to her chest, shouting in surprise before looking up angrily. Victor had jumped from one of the adjacent roofs.

"Human remember? Capable of having a heart attack" said Dylan as her heart slowed down, she stood up and watched the frown come over Victor's face. There was a glint in his eye and Dylan put her arm over her stomach to clutch weakly at her forearm.

"We're going to be gone for a few days this time" Creed said declaratively, his talons lightly scratched the stubble along his cheeks and remained unsheathed as they dropped to his sides. Dylan frowned, "Why?" she asked, the fact she would be alone didn't sit right with her, the other, human soldiers on the site wouldn't speak with her. Better the mutant you know right?

Victor paused for a moment before he smiled cruelly and held her chin between the talons of his thumb and forefinger. "Curiosity killed the cat Princess" He answered oily. She made a face and looked up at him,

"Stay in the room and don't be an idiot"

By the room Dylan assumed he meant the one where she had slept in the bathroom and floor, his room. A nod of her head confirmed his orders and he removed the grip on her chin and like a superhuman gymnast, ran up one building and flung himself onto the roof.

Dylan watched him with an awestruck face; slowly she raised her hand and gave him the small reassuring human gesture of a 'thumbs up'. Victor shook his head and sprinted after the rest of Team X, leaving Dylan to watch them.

A day went by, Dylan, in her boredom had cleaned every single member of the Teams room's to the level of royalty. She didn't venture into Stryker's though, that man wasn't on the edge of the creepy pool, he was fully swimming in the deep end of it.

Now, on the second day she took over the cleaning of the main living area. Zesty fragrances of the powerful sterilizing solvents smoked around her, hurting her eyes as she tirelessly scowered away at the furnishings.

Using the skin of her forearm she wiped away the sheen of sweat on her brow and pulled the marigold gloves from her hands and admired her labours as a laser of light glinted off the brilliant white kitchen area.

"The mutants still keeping you under lock and key Sweetheart?"

Dylan whirled around at the intrusion and stepped backwards when she saw one of the human soldiers stood in the doorway wearing the regular camouflage uniform. His hand rested lazily on the regulation gun suspended from a leather strap around his neck. The stony faced man didn't change his hardened expression when Dylan responded,

"You didn't need a key to open the door"

The man paused a moment, flitting his eyes around the room calculatingly before turning around as silently as he came in and shut the door behind him.

Dylan furrowed her brow, "Weird" she said allowed to the empty room which resonated her statement around the walls before fizzling out. Since stopping the work Dylan felt a chill down the bone of her spine and after the small invasion of her solitude, she began to feel monitored.

At least with the boys she felt reasonably safe. Could she really say she'd been hurt by them? Thinking about it, Dylan begin to neatly order the cleaning products away like a game of Tetris.

Yes, she'd lost a friend, but that wasn't caused by any of them.

Yes, she'd been snatched away from her life, that was down to Stryker.

No, since being her she'd suffered bruises – that was mainly because of the places she slept, and scratches, Victor's claws always seemed to be nicking and pricking her skin. It was shameful to admit that Dylan had grown accustomed to it. The boys were her dysfunctional, adopted siblings, and way she was forced into the employment seemed very far away.

Dylan struck her thumb in her mouth worriedly as this extra time made her mind more and more active, more imaginative. The skin began to tear away as she used her teeth to gnaw away at it, trying to alleviate some stress.

Quickly, she stood up and collected the TV remote from the sofa opposite her and hit the power on button without mercy. Even as the soap opera began to drone on as comfortable background noise, it failed to pull Dylan's attention.

'I bet there's never been a secret Government kidnapping on this' Her inner monologue taunted the overly dramatic actors and actresses. Curling her legs under her, Dylan thought with an odd smile. If it was a choice between creepy human soldiers dropping in unannounced or Wade cracking inappropriate jokes and Victor slicing her skin sporadically, she'd take the mutants.


	11. Stockholm Syndrome

It was the third day Team X's absence from the base. Dylan was lazily strewn across the bed in Victor's room, her head dangling over the edge so the tresses of her hair cascaded to the floor. A wave of nausea passed over her as she exhaled deeply.

The fact she had already cleaned everything meant she had nothing to do. For her sake of ways to keep her busy she chose to practise her cooking skills, making an elaborate breakfast for herself, then moving on to preparing a few meals that would easily keep in the fridge for the boys.

Even that only wasted the morning, now, in early afternoon she rose off the bed and began to pace. The phone on the wall was tempting, hanging their lifelessly while catching her eye. There was no point in trying communication though, Dylan had already phoned the people who would miss her.

The bag she'd brought from home was in the corner of the room, Dylan's hands began to delve in and search through the objects. Her lips curled into a smile when she remembered the heavy bag, Dylan had hauled it into it arms and thrown it with a deep breath at Victor for him to carry. The mutant caught the bag easily, despite the fact it fell at his ankles, and then he tossed it back at her. Dylan, not expecting a game of catch crumpled when the back hit her, pinning her to the floor.

"Real nice" She had said underneath the weight of the bag as it pinned her to the floor, and with a little tug of his lips, Victor engulfed the handles and picked it off her.

Dylan returned to the bed with an old magazine, creased at the edges from the number of times she'd turned the pages. Just as she came to centre of the delicate read, the door slammed open.

A boot print was fresh in the centre of it, with thanks to the shoe upon the noisy intruder's foot. It was the humans. Three of them. Dylan hopped over the other side of the bed and pushed herself into the drywall as she willed her body to disappear.

She wasn't a mutant, and filling into the room, the soldiers closed the door with an antithesis of strength to their entrance. A scowl covered Dylan's face when she saw that the leader, the idiot who was marching up to her was the same intruder she encountered yesterday.

A fingerless glove made contact with her collar bone and he smiled cruelly.

"Mark!" One of the men who were bringing up the rear of the trio whispered urgently, making the man with his hands on Dylan frown with aggravation. "Are you sure we should be doing this?...It's Victor's girl"

Dylan curled her lip angrily,

"The dude with the claws?" The other man at the back asked. Mark turned back to Dylan and began to flicker his eyes over her face with the cold blue eyes that burned below dark brows.

"That mix of freaks aren't here. Another one of the missions" Said Mark as he began to tug persistently at the material of her clothes. She tried to push him away,

"Freaks? Have you looked in the mirror?" said Dylan as she fought against them. Quickly the superior force had Dylan on the floor, pinned underneath his legs as he held her jaw. The two men had the back were moving away from them now, one holding the handle of the door.

Mark began to tut nosily, looking at his companions with a smirk as he loosened his hold slightly. Crouching down to her mouth, the solider said lowly, "Looks like we've got ourselves a case of Stockholm syndrome"

Dylan spat at him, and when he recoiled back her hand wriggled free and struck his temple as hard as she could manage. They struggled then, the heavy, roughness made Dylan breathe deeply as she began to get worried, air choked in her windpipe.

Her muffled cries were overwhelmed suddenly when the door slammed open for a second time, sending the one soldier flying further into the room, hitting his head and rendering him immobile. A deep, snarling, guttural growl resounded off the walls and shadowed the new person's entrance.

Victor's boots made no sound as Dylan, turning her head as it lay on the carpet, watched them stride into the room. "Lose your way?" He growled out, directing his question at Mark. The man got to his feet and held his hands up in surrender, there was a shaking to his outline.

Dylan used her legs to push herself as far away from the situation as she could, the dry wall hit her back harshly. Victor began to walk forward, "W-we didn't know", Mark stuttered out pathetically.

A large paw grabbed the man's neck, Victor flexed his fingers and lifted Mark off his feet slightly,

"You're in my room, touching my things" He stated while smirking as he watched Mark try and claw some air back in his lungs, "…I don't share"

Easily, the claws extended quickly into the soft flesh and Victor easily disregarded the dead body, he ignored the sobs plaguing his ears. The conscious solider was rendered speechless; he just sat there and watched his fellow solider die.

When Victor's globed shoulders rolled back to lock eyes with the frozen solider, only then did the man melt and rush for the firearm in the holster at his side. Dylan shrieked when the trigger of the gun was pulled and a loud shot exclaimed through the room, hitting Victor straight in the shoulder.

A mere grunt came from him as the bullet hit.

Fed up with the time that this situation was taking, Victor lashed out his arm and cracked the bones in the man's neck so he fell harshly to the floor. Like the day he'd picked up her luggage bag, Victor took a hold of the material on the men's uniforms and picked them up like litter before throwing them out of his sight.

When he came back into the room he looked at Dylan; she was sobbing lightly. At the door he stood watching her for a moment, "Stop it" he growled out. Dylan ignored him and carried on, "Stop it" he repeated. A further time she ignored him, when he said "Stop it!" in a declarative tone, simultaneously he strode over to her.

Swiftly he pulled her up by her shoulders, shaking them little as Dylan tried to control the convulsions of her body that the sobs inflicted on her. Dylan looked at him, directly in his eyes when he paused.

Slowly her little hands went under Victor's shirt, touching his cool skin she moved closer to him, embracing him tightly. Victor moved his arm to engulf her shoulders, gripping them firmly as he pulled her into his chest.

When the hug loosened, Dylan remained close to him, moving her head from his chest and pointing her toes to gain more height. Desperately she brought her lips to his, enjoying the forceful pressure he reciprocated with the occasional nick off the pointed incisors of his mouth.


	12. My Mark

Victor had his eyes shut complacently, slowly rolling the lids open he looked instantly at the small figure at his side who was breathing gently, mouth slightly ajar. A smirk covered his smug face, Dylan began to stir and as her eyes opened blearily a smile crossed her own face when she noticed his expression.

"Somebody's happy" She said, Victor looked at her and rubbed his eyes with his rough hand.

"You know, I've always liked human girls, you're soft" He explained, watching her face, the smile didn't leave her face but Dylan cocked her eyebrow cheekily. Breathing deeply she moved her legs from under the covers, baring her pale skin to the bright light that streamed into the room.

"Tell me about it" Dylan commented as she bent her limbs to inspect them. An assortment of tinging coloured bruises patterned the skin, as well as narrow tracing red scrams, some deeper than others which danced up her legs and over her abdomen.

A growl emitted from Victor's throat when one particular purple bruise caught his keen eye and the palm of his large hand reached out and pushed her leg out again, for the light to hit it.

"That's not mine" He observed, tipping his head to the side and passing his eyes calculatingly over the mark. Another smirk came over his face when he felt Dylan's pulse increase dramatically as he slowly elongated his nails.

Deliberately his nail traced the skin lightly etching a narrow red welt from the start of the ugly bruise and ending where the yellow faded. Dylan rolled her eyes before reaching forward and using her own palms to place either side of Victor's face and greedily pull him towards her.

She felt safe with Victor, even when his pointed teeth nipped at her lower lip and drew droplets of blood. Dylan didn't stop kissing him, as soon as she flinched back in shock, she came forward again eager to reconnect their lips.

Creed flicked his tongue over the blood residual and purred with satisfaction, savouring the sweetness of the taste. Suddenly the door smashed open, Dylan squeaked in surprise and quickly manoeuvred herself under the duvet, only allowing her eyes to peep over the top of the material and watch the interrupter.

Angrily Victor lashed his head around to look at the door before growling deeply and moving away from Dylan with averse. "The hell do you want?" He spat at the intruder.

Stryker was in the door way, a sour expression on his face as he analysed the scene in front of him before locking eyes with Creed and with quiet aggression, he asked "There were three men **dead **outside your door…why?"

"Beats me" Victor shrugged and smirked at the irate leader of Team X, enjoying the frustration that bubbled under the skin of the man. "Maybe they had food poisoning"

Dylan snorted a chuckle and covered her head with the duvet, hiding as the determined sounds took over her body. Stryker left, hitting the door shut with a resolute slam and grumbling profanities under his breath. Victor smirked, he'd heard Dylan cry, shout and scream, but when he heard the relaxed laugh come from her, he decided that it was his favourite.

Later, Dylan flicked the button of the clippers and winced as the harsh vibrations buzzed around the room aggressively. She held the top of Bradley's head and moved it to the side to angle it so the blades wouldn't hurt him.

"Jimmy left" Victor stated from his place above her on the beams of the ceiling supports. Dylan paused and looked up at him; she frowned and tugged her mouth to the side with thought.

"Why didn't you say anything before?" She said curiously,

"We were…_busy_" Victor stated as he jostled position and leant lazily on the beam with his one leg resting in front of him, opposing the other, which dangled idly over the frame. Quickly Dylan hit the clippers on again, moving back to the work and allowing her hair to fall forward and cover her blush.

Bradley exhaled and smiled broadly at the sentence. Dylan moved her hand and smacked his shoulder lightly, frowning when Dukes made the same chuckle.

Bradley left the chair and Victor dropped from his nest loudly, slamming his boots loudly into the hard floor. "So what happened with Logan?" She asked him, placing her hand between his shoulder and neck, using her thumb to move over the surface as Dylan turned on the clippers once more.

"The runt deserted" Victor said, clenching his fists together painfully tight and unwillingly growing tense as he thought about his little brother's actions and words. Dylan remained silent, not wanting to push the subject further and touched his shoulder comfortingly.

"What date is it?" Dylan asked suddenly, tensing quickly and making Victor turn around to look at her expression suspiciously. Wade suddenly ran down the corridor, capturing everyone's attention instantly.

"I'm hungry" He yelled like a small child, Victor scowled disgustedly at the pathetic behaviour and stood up abruptly. Dylan watched him manoeuvre away from her and to the door, as he opened the door he turned back to her and stated,

"I've got a perimeter watch, wait for me in the room"

Dylan frowned deeply but nodded her head affirmative. She hated when he had those to do, basically because Victor was fast, very fast, Stryker gave him the extra task of bordering the base to look for any abnormalities.

"I'm hungry" Wade declared again.

"Anything imparticular?" She asked him with a recovering smile. Wade shook his head, any food is good food.

"Ok give me a minute Sweetie, you need your hair cut as well" Dylan observed the overgrown hair which Wade ran a protective hand through immediately after she spoke. Bradley, Dukes and Victor already had theirs done, though Wade would need a scissors rather than a clippers for his own hair. There was no way he'd opt for a shaved look. Sneakily John and Zero were absent from the group, clearly they didn't trust her amateur hands.

"You never did tell me the date" Dylan said as she detached herself from Victor as they met back in the room later on. Victor growled at the interruption but sighed and stated,

"Fifteenth"

Dylan tensed in his arms and looked up at him with large, pleading, puppy eyes and a complacent expression. Victor, instantly suspicious held her at arm's length and pushed his mouth to the side thoughtfully.

"Why?" He demanded as his fingers firmly held her arms.

Dylan ducked her head before looking up at him, standing on tipped toes and kissing Creed again with more force, trying to get him in the best mood possible before saying,

"I need your help"


	13. Alzheimer's

Dylan had to persuade Victor a lot more to help her, she didn't mind though; apparently persuading him involved an activity that she enjoyed equally as much. Stryker didn't bother asking where they were going; no doubt one of the disgusting drones would have informed him of the disappearance and got more of a tirade for the interruption. Missions had slowly come to a halt, something else was changing, plans evolving in the leader's malignant mind.

She hadn't told Creed where or why they were leaving, but he followed her 'left' and 'right' commands and with unhesitating speed, slammed the car into a parking bay outside a large building. The white wash outer walls mirrored the same white picket fences that enclosed the residential area and the green, flowering garden that smothered it.

Victor looked around him curiously and raised his eyebrow at Dylan who walked around the car and watched him wrinkle his nose before she proceeded up the steps followed by his imposing shadowed.

An overly friendly woman greeted Dylan with a large toothy grin which Victor scowled at, there were hideous red stains on her teeth from the greasy lipstick haphazardly smeared on. Gaudy, thick gold earrings pulled at her lopes, and the same chunky metal hung around her throat.

"She's in her room Dilly" The secretary informed Dylan before turning to Victor and tipping her head down, gently pulling her glasses down her nose to look over the frames. Dylan nodded her thanks and carried on down a winding corridor and up a hospital smelling stairs.

"I hate that name" Dylan said to break the silence,

"Sounds like something you find in pond water" Victor added with a growl, he took an instant dislike to the dramatically permed woman.

"It does!" Conquered Dylan as she sighed out a quick laugh and looked up at him, "She certainly liked you". Victor kept his eyes forward and allowed a large smirk to pull over his cheeks. As a male nurse passed, Victor let his arm go out, encircling Dylan's waist and quickly pull her into his side. Dylan emulated his action, keeping her eyes forward and smirking with self-satisfaction.

Finally they got to the room that Dylan was in search of. She paused before Dylan pushed open the door, plastering on a new unfaltering smile as she walked in. The woman sat rigidly on the end of the bed was young, too young for a place like this Victor thought with a wrinkle of his dark brow.

"Hey Mum" Dylan said, taking a seat at the ladies side and taking her worn hand in her own comfortingly. Victor remained at the door, half hidden behind the wood as he tried to inspect any genetic resemblance between the women. The older woman's hair was darker than Dylan's, a dull blonde that could have once been a clone to Dylan's own vibrant gold locks.

"Oh hello Sweetie, what are you doing here? You're supposed to be here next week, you always did like to change plans and keep me on my to-"

"No it's the eighteenth Mum, same as last week" Dylan countered with a smooth voice, the interruption made the woman crumple her face in panic and quickly her small frame jolted up and doggedly made towards the hanging wall calendar.

"No no no no no, it's Fri-"

"Oh you're right, sorry Mum, it's my fault I've got my times wrong again" Dylan stood up and corrected herself falsely, holding onto her mother's arm and directing her back to the bed gently. Dylan's mother relaxed instantly then, returning back to its complacent expression.

"I told you" Her tone was condescending, as if speaking to a small toddler than a fully grown woman, and it made Victor's face curl into a scowl. "You always were easily confused Helen"

Dylan's face didn't falter as she smiled and nodded her head with reserved silence, after a pause, she changed the subject. "Did you do any painting since last time?"

The woman remained silent and Victor's eyes became preoccupied with analysing the room, he caught the small name tag on the end of the bed, 'Darla Black'.

"Did you not manage to finish your last piece?" He caught Dylan press again.

Quickly, Victor attention was brought back to the conversing women when a sudden movement sparked his reflexes and knotted the muscles down his body. Darla had jolted up and marched awkwardly over to him with wide, eyes.

Dylan stood up and began to walk over to her mother as Victor entered a staring competition with her, "Mum this is Victor" she spoke and put one of her little hands on the fuzzy material of the cardigan.

Darla whirled around and turned her head to Victor,

"Who is she?" She whispered slowly.

Dylan's unfaltering face smiled gently at her mother, "It's me Mum, Dylan"

"I want to go home…take me home Helen, I can't stay here. Nurse! Nurse!"

Things went bad then; Darla's mood spiralled and peaked with her turning an attack on her daughter, scramming her forearm and making Victor firmly restrain her as two nurses ran quickly into the room, their clip on pocket watched jingling out a jovial tune.

Dylan walked from the room quickly, taking herself, the cause of the tension out of the room and giving a slight tug on Victor's arm as signal for him to follow her. Outside, Dylan slammed her shoulder blades into the wall and tipped her head back with a huge sigh. Victor came close in front of her, inspecting her face.

"She's gotten worse" Said Dylan, keeping her eyes closed as she tried to escape the scene.

"Who's Helen?" Creed asked gruffly, looking back down the corridor at the room they just came from.

"My mother's sister. Mum always calls me by her name, she gets really confused" Opening her eyes Dylan walked into Victor's chest, allowing the touch of his skin on hers to comfort her. With one arm Victor encircled her waist tightly.

"Alzheimer's" Victor stated confirming the disease, looking down at Dylan when she pulled away from him.

"Ding ding ding" She said lightly, quickly taking Victor's paw in her hand and holding it tightly as they walked away. Victor was uncomfortable with the gesture, maneuvering his hand around awkwardly before he felt Dylan's grip.

The smallness of her hands made him feel powerful, in control and dominant. This was his girl, his to protect, and power was a feeling Victor liked.

"Come on, let's go" He growled, this place was awful.


	14. A New Hunt

Stryker swung open the door to the main room Team X occupied and smirked when he saw the scene before him, "Look alive ladies".

Dukes was at the table, three plates of piled high pancakes on the one, stack of bacon on the other, and several hard boiled eggs on the last. A series of grunting came from his throat, Dylan walked over to him and put a hand on his shoulder, ordering, "Breathe". Agent Zero was on the other side of him and smirked, lashing out to hit his arm provokingly before taking another bite of his more simple meal of toast.

Moving over the sofas, Dylan handed out more high stacked plates to Bradley, John and Wade. Victor was in the kitchen, and Dylan jogged back to him, handing him the largest of the plates and smiling happy when he smirked and sauntered over to the edge of the long table. Only when Dylan saw everyone shoving the nourishing forkfuls into their mouths did she turn around and seek out her own breakfast.

Dylan made no effort to offer Stryker anything when he walked in; instead she hopped onto the kitchen work surface and delicately took a small spoonful of bright, white yogurt to her lips.

"Morning Sunshine!" Wade sang jovially despite the large mouthful of pancake in his mouth, Dylan smiled despite the spray of crumbs which sprayed from Wade's mouth. She'd clean it up later.

"New mission objectives" Stryker dropped the thin cardboard file onto the wooden table, the three mutants on the sofa moved over the other side of the room to get a good view of the speech. "The Team is having a new direction…collectively documenting and recording every case of genetic abnormalities that could be advantageous for government development usage"

"You're going to hunt mutants?" Dylan said declaratively as she put the yogurt to one side and put her hands either side of her to grip the table top. Her face furrowed into a grimace at the horrible thought.

Stryker looked up at her with a malicious smile, the rest of Team X were looking at her as well, Victor with an intrigued expression a cocked eyebrow. "Was I speaking too fast for you?"

Dylan scowled at the condescending question and pushed herself off the counter,

"On the contrary, please use some more military, government jargon that is only coming out of your mouth to confuse people. I'd be more than happy to translate Sir" A false smile curled over her face and she nodded triumphantly, silently thanking her love of reading for allowing her to one up the smarmy leader.

"Is there a problem here?" Wade asked with an excited smile, eagerly wanting a fight to bust out between the pair, which really would be some top class morning entertainment.

"Of course not, isn't that right Miss Black?"

Dylan folded her arms over her chest defensively, "If you think I have a problem with mutants hunting their own kind to boost your own self-righteous fantasy then you'd be-" She paused, remembering exactly where she was then, Dylan didn't fail to notice the twitch Zero's hand made towards the nearest gun. Or the high strung tension that blanketed the room suddenly, her next words could spark the flame at the end of the dynamite stick.

"Wrong" She said finally, unfolding her arms, Dylan stood up to her full height.

"Excuse me" Dylan pardoned herself and walked frown the room doggedly, keeping her eyes firmly on the door, ignoring the smug, self-important look on Stryker's face. A slam announced her departure.

"Woo!" Wade yelled as she left, "You got yourself a firecracker there Creed!"

Wade passed by the feral as he spoke, leaping forward to escape five raking claws that aimed to lacerate his skin deeply. He growled loudly before settling into a low rumble, turning back to Stryker, eager for more details on the Team objectives.

'Hunting' Creed thought with a smirk, 'I like it'

Dylan ran two hands through her hair, harshly pulling at the roots before clapping her hands to her sides and looking at Victor as he barrelled through the door.

"Hunting mutants really?" Dylan asked him

"Yup" Victor popped his lips together, watching attentively as Dylan let herself fall onto the bed with a sigh, "I enjoy it" he added. Striding over to the edge of the bed he reached out and knotted his fist in the fabric of Dylan's top, pulling her upright so he could force his lips onto her own.

"I hate him"

Victor frowned as he began to change out of his heavy military boots after pushing Dylan back down to her original position. She blew her hair out of her eyes and shared a similar expression as her mind thought more about Stryker's new objectives.

"If it makes you feel any better, he's hates you to" Said Victor, pulling his vest over his head and looking back at Dylan. She cast her eyes appreciatively and answered distractedly,

"You're gonna be hunting innocent people"

Victor sighed and threw the item of clothing from his hand to the corner of the room, this conversation was boring him. "Look around, it wouldn't be the first time an innocent person got kidnapped!" He raised his eyebrows, gesturing towards Dylan.

Dylan ducked her head and laughed as she exhaled deeply before turning back to look Victor in the eyes, leaning back to lie on the duvet softly.

"Innocent?" One of Dylan's teeth bit into her bottom lip, Victor turned around fully to look at her, he looked eagerly at her and walked over again, putting his face millimetres above her own.

"Since when have you done anything illegal, everything you do is innocent" Victor stated, another eyebrow tilt made Victor laugh deeply, "Besides that…you ever been arrested toots?"

Dylan brought her body up, pushing herself up on her forearms to get closer to him, speaking in a slow taunt, "Maybe".

Elongating her words, Dylan inclined forward, angling her head around Victor's like a predatory animal before deciding to grip his bottom lip between her teeth, pulling Creed down over her with locking eyes.


	15. Think You're Special?

"Are you sure you want to allow your delicate ears to listen to this?" Stryker asked Dylan, she gestured two fingers away from her coffee cup and nodded as a signal for him to proceed. Another greasy smile came over Stryker's face; his eyes flickered to a tense crouched Victor whose talons were extended fully.

"Victor, you'll be going after this one, with Dukes"

Dukes curled his meaty hands into fists and pushed off the dry wall, exaggeratedly rolling his shoulders in preparation for the upcoming hunt. Victor remained where he was, lightly scratching his hand with the tips of his claws.

"Okay, he's livin-"

Placing her cup on the table Dylan blocked out the rest of the conversation, choosing to rummage around the kitchen and pick out the ingredients for dinner. "Sure you'll be ok without your bodyguard Cinderella?" Wade came behind Dylan and picked her up by the waist, lifting her high off the floor.

Dylan scowled, "Stop it Wade"

As soon as her feet were back on the ground, Victor was there, holding Wade's throat and lifting him off the floor, placing him away from Dylan. "Walk away" He growled out, "While you still can"

Wade marched away from the pair rubbing his bruised neck and shaking his head as he grumbled a number of profanities. All the mutants except Dukes and Victor had disappeared, leaving the room after being dismissed from this particular mission.

"Be back soon sugar" Victor said smirking when Dylan gasped; he picked her up so her back was supported by Creed's forearms, and her thighs were on his biceps. During their heated kiss, Dukes coughed an interruption and tapped his boot impatiently.

"We got a mutant to bag Creed"

A deep rumble came from Victor's throat; Dylan put her hand on his chest as she was dropped to the floor for a second time. "Calm down pork chop"

Victor turned around and marched towards the door, taking the lead and looking over his shoulder to watch Dukes heave himself after the feral. "Be careful boys" Dylan said as she tipped her head with concentration, her focus back on the slicing and dicing the vegetables.

It was late the next morning when Dylan woke up and made her way to the main room for a countless time, beginning to cook the team members breakfast robotically when the noisy door clanged open.

It was Stryker.

Dylan ignored him, she was never the reason for Stryker to visit though it was idiotic for him to come at this time of the morning, nobody would be awake until they smelt food cooking. Preoccupied, Dylan failed to notice Stryker approach behind her and only spun around at the last moment, pinned by two arms.

"What are you doing?" She asked, pushing herself as far away from him as the counter surface behind allowed.

"You're turning my best soldier soft, I don't like that and I especially don't like being made a mockery out of." Stryker warned her threatingly lowering the tone of his voice. Dylan cringed and angled her head away from him as she sneered.

"You doing that yourself, thinking it's acceptable to hire mutants to capture their own kind" Dylan argued.

"And what do you think wars are sweetheart? Humans employing humans to fight other humans; it's how the world works" He shouted, getting more aggressive but hiding it behind a shield of a false calm expression. The side of his lip twitched in irritation.

"When I say jump, the boys say how high" Stryker continued, leaning further into Dylan's personal space. "Mutants are vital in the war…experimenting could le-"

"Experimenting?" Dylan asked in shock, watching with wide eyes as Stryker let his head fall in realisation at his unfortunate revelation. "You're planning to turn mutants into your own personal Frankensteins'?"

She didn't bother hiding the disgust in her voice, this new development in Stryker's plan was worse than before, Dylan shook her head. "Just because Victor's taken a shine to you like a greedy magpie doesn't mean that you're safe. You're here because we want you to be, if we didn't, there'd be a few more worms with a decent meal tonight"

Dylan pulled her lips tight and her expression hard as she looked Stryker straight in the eyes, trying to stand her ground.

"Keep a lid on it Dylan, you're having a paroxysm at mutants being tested…you never know when we move on to testing innocent little ex bar maids" The threat was obvious. John walked in then, pausing at the door frame which started down the corridor before walking in further, keeping his eyes on Dylan's.

"You alright Dylan?"

It made Dylan relax her body language; she nodded while pushing Stryker's shoulder to allow her to get away from him. 'Thank you' she mouthed to John, grateful for the interruption and excuse to get away from the leader as her eyes began to moisten.

Looks like the team would be making their own breakfast today.

When Victor got back he found his room empty, but he smelt Dylan in here and moved his way into the bathroom. Opening the door he saw Dylan; she was in the bath, motionless in the water as her eyes focused solely on the ceiling until Victor walked in and the pupils lazily rolled to see him.

A tired smile came over her face when Dylan looked at him,

"How'd it go?" She asked interested in his first new mission.

"What happened?" Victor's throat began to hum as the inner rage piled inside his throat resulting in a deep snarl. Dylan shook her head, "Just some things Stryker said to me today, it doesn't matter"

Victor scoffed at the absurd comment, every time Dylan saw Victor her eyes would light up significantly while her mouth curved into a smile. Creed may be an immortal, feral mutant, but that made him more observant; he didn't fail to notice the latter or how her heart would speed up, though it didn't stop him from feeling disbelief.

"I'm fine" Dylan said firmly.

"Bullshit" Victor snarled and spun on his heel, heading back out the door while ignoring Dylan as she clambered for his arm to restrain him.


	16. An Offer and Rejection

"I don't like people touching my things Stryker"

The Team's boss was standing against the back wall of his own room. Victor had barrelled straight in, no knock or announcement and slowly elongated his talons, Stryker, instantly on alert and backed away slowly.

Victor's eyes danced with taunting light and he smiled revealing the sharpest points of his canine teeth. "I didn't do anything to her-"

"You wouldn't have a pulse if you had" Victor warned, dropping his smile and walking with slow, counting steps closing the space between him and Stryker. "The girl is mine"

"I'm not doubting that Victor" Confirmed Stryker, breathing with more ease when the animal paused in his tracks, locking eyes with him. Victor's lip curled and he raised his head suspiciously but remained firm footed where he stood.

"Anytime you do have a doubt, cover it well because if I see it, I'll come back" Another taunting smile wriggled its way over Creed's mouth as he breathed a laugh. As he turned his large sloped shoulders to leave, Stryker gained a burst of confidence, allowing the malignant side of his personality to seep through his pores.

"That girl will be the death of you Captain, men say you're going soft" Creed halted at the door frame instantly, raising his hand to grip the wooden border and sink all five of his claws in it. The timber relinquished immediately, breaking into shards of random scattering debris.

Lashing around, Victor took just one, four limbed, feral leap to reach Stryker, slamming his paw over the man's throat, holding him off the floor. Squeezing the skin, Creed relished in the touch smiled as he felt the series of pipes under the tips of his fingers.

"Soft?" Victor asked, flicking his tongue out of his mouth as he looked humourlessly around the room then back to Stryker's eyes.

The restriction around Stryker's throat made the sentence he tried to say come out choked and broken; Victor put him on the floor once again and loosened his grip a fraction. "What was that?" He asked innocently.

"She's going to die eventually" Stryker stated, sucking in as much air as he could while he was allowed. Victor frowned deeply, that wasn't the string of apologies he expected. The tips of Victor's claws began their work then, taking over from his harsh grip, the claws began to slowly embed into the flesh of Stryker's neck.

"Is that a threat?" Victor asked sharply.

"No, it's a promise. Dylan's human, if it's not a car crash, time will do the job just as well" Stryker hurried his sentence out, his hands scrabbling at Victor's own before he spoke again, slower and more calculatingly. "We could try to change it though"

Again Stryker was allowed a momentary reprieve as Victor, still frowning, tipped his head and looked at his boss with unrelenting ferocity. When Stryker went to talk again, Creed scowled deeper and lifted him further off the ground, taking back the harsh grip on his throat.

"You don't touch her, and you keep her out of any experiments, got it?"

Victor waited a moment for the message to sink in as the colour drained from Stryker's face, he was nodding feverishly, and Creed emulating the movement mockingly snatched his hands back, allowing Stryker's body to fall to the floor.

"She dies when I say she dies" The feral said, crouching onto his calf to look down at the man gasping for air on the floor. Victor laughed and looked at Stryker, his eyes still dancing with light excitement, "You should lighten up Sir"

Then, standing up he walked out of the room and back to his own, a chuckle murmuring beneath his lips. Walking back into his own room, Victor smiled widely when he saw Dylan on his bed, holding her legs close to her chest as she waited for him. Dylan's hands were clutching the grey material of the joggers she wore, knotting in the fabric worriedly until Victor came in the room again and she launched off the bed to see him.

"He-"

Dylan's attempt to go all Sherlock Holmes and deduce what happened during the altercation between Victor and Stryker was cut short. Crouching quickly, Victor's hands tucked behind Dylan's knees and pulled her up to his level. Dylan gasped and desperately grabbed the front of his shirt, not wanting to fall over.

Attacking her lips, Victor's incisors accidently cut her lip but it didn't stop Dylan from returning the intensity of the kiss. Dylan was breathing deeply as they broke away for a moment; she looked at him suspiciously before smiling genuinely.

"It went well" Victor stated with a brazen smirk. Dylan ducked her head allowing her hair to flip forward, fanning Creed with a wave of fruit like fragrance from the shampoo she brought with her. Dylan pursed her lips and tried to keep them straight, but the edges of her mouth pulled up a little; she knew what 'well' meant to Victor. Stryker deserved it.

Undoubtedly Stryker would have a scattering of bruises and cuts, Victor was a feral, an animal and Dylan knew he enjoyed being that way. He liked to hunt and hurt people, it was something Dylan had to live with and if that's what being in his company meant then she would accept it.

"What happened?" Dylan asked, moving one of her hands to the back of Victor's neck and the other hand to the side of his stubbled cheek. Victor leaned into the touch and smirked, closing his eyes. She watched as he stayed there and remained silent,

"Damn. Is Stryker still alive?" She asked, Victor was awfully happy today and Dylan began to wonder if the Mutant Team boss was still breathing. His face nodded, moving the bristles over Dylan's palm making her laugh.

Dylan kissed him again and this time pulled him closer, smiling into the kiss when she heard the resulting rumbling growl start to stir in Victor's throat.

Only one thing that means.


	17. Bully Boy

"You ever wonder what you would be doing at this exact moment if you weren't here with us?" Wade asked Dylan as he watched her potter around the room before rubbing her brow with the back of her hand and settling into a seat opposite him. Heavily she collapsed and threw her arms out, each holding a can of polish and one rage.

"It's Tuesday right?" Dylan asked, "and it is-" her eyes glanced up at the large, slow ticking wall clock, "-five pm. If I wasn't here I'd have just finished getting changed into my uniform for work and probably sold three beers already"

Giving her extremely accurate answer, Dylan nodded and closed her eyes, tired after cleaning the big room and a few of the team's bedroom's. Wade smirked and leant forward, resting his elbows on his knees.

"That's real interesting…tell me more about the uniform" He said cheekily.

Dylan carelessly threw the bottle of cleaning product in her right hand in front of her, hoping it caught Wade somewhere on the face. It didn't, Wilson easily flicked it off its path with the swatting of his hand.

"What's for dinner?" Wade asked, interrupting the pleasant silence that sank over the pair, repeating his question when Dylan ignored him.

"I don't know…um, turkey, potatoes and vegetables of some sort"

"Lacking imagination tonight" Wade stated disappointedly, leaning back into the sofa cushions and folding his arms with a serious expression. Dylan kept her eyes closed but frowned,

"I'll do steak instead" She decided finally, last week she'd managed to cook a variety of meals for the team. Today she was tired and she'd spent longer than necessary cleaning, time was against her so the quickest, tastiest option would be steak.

Stryker had already warned her about giving the boys too little protein in their diet.

Wade smiled and Dylan managed to catch the satisfied look on his face as she opened her eyes again, steak was Wilson's favourite. Suddenly Wade looked up and tensed, quickly he left the room, vaulting over the back of the sofa and running out the door.

'Probably missed nap time' Dylan's monologue teased, begrudgingly she hauled off the sofa and went over to the kitchen, time for more work. As she set to work peeling the huge potatoes, Dylan began to day dream, continuing the task robotically.

The massive pan was almost full when the door slammed open. Dylan spun around, expecting to see one of her boys walk in with a thunderous expression, judging by the loud noise.

It wasn't.

The man that came through the door was panic stricken. He couldn't have been more than thirty years old, with a shaven head and stabbing blue eyes; they frantically searched around the new environment. What caught Dylan's attention were the huge horns; two of them, coming straight out of the man's skull seamlessly. Completing the bull image, a large, gold glinting ring pierced his nose and moved subsequently with the huge deep breaths coming out of his mouth.

The half man, half animal locked eyes with Dylan's shrinking frame and rand over to her, easily capturing her, though she tried to make a quick escape in vain. Quickly, Dylan was spun around and used as a human shield against the mutants who came stampeding through the door, the team.

"Put her down" Stryker spoke, using his arm to block the mutants from racing to Dylan and freeing her from the animal. Dylan shied away from the creature; it was breathing hot air in deep clouds into the crook of her neck angrily moving his eyes from left to right down the line of mercenaries.

"Let me go" The beast demanded, bringing his forearm across Dylan's narrow shoulders and clutching her tightly to him. Agent Zero's gun clicked as he quickly loaded and brought the weapon in front of him, aiming it skilfully. The animal tightened his grip again, bringing Dylan's frame against him so only her foot tips graced the floor.

"D-"

The gun was fired and Dylan fell the floor with tremendous force as the dead weight animal collapsed. Underneath the man's body, Dylan kicked and wriggled away from the mass in hysteria, breathing rapidly as shock began to crawl into her system.

Dukes came forward then, pulling the red plumage dart from the bull's neck and throwing the body easily, like a small bag of vegetables over his shoulder and marching away. He nodded to Stryker as he passed.

"You alright kid?" John was in front of her, crouched down to the floor to look her in the eyes and judge for himself whether she really was ok. Dylan nodded firmly and stood herself up rigidly, glaring with hatred at Stryker.

The boss was looking to the other mutants, his expression wavering as he spoke with attempted conviction,

"Early days, there were bound to be a few teething problems"

The mutants disappeared separately, giving Dylan simultaneous looks of inferiority as she stood with a hard expression but with traces of shivers trembling her arms. She didn't want their pity. Victor marched forward out of the line and shepherded Dylan away from the room. His expression was stony as he gripped her arm and pulled her behind him.

Stryker put his hand on Victor's chest as the pair attempted to move pass, his face inclined down as though it proffered to communicate with Victor's chest rather than look him in the eye like a proper man would.

"The offer still stands" Stryker told the best solider of the team with a smug smile, if he could have planned a way to show Victor Dylan's subservient nature to mutants, this accidental escape of a captured mutant was perfect.

When Stryker moved his eyes to Dylan, Victor pushed passed the meek hand and pulled Dylan behind him again. Wondering what all the hidden offers were, Dylan frowned and allowed herself to be pulled away.

The raging thoughts in her head didn't stop as Victor pushed her into his room and closed the door with an uncharacteristic like hush. Dylan remained were she had been pushed and folded her arms with awkward unease, watching Victor pace around the room with knuckle clenched hands that pushed against tight skin.

"What offer?" She asked in a quiet whisper.

Victor lashed around,

"Stryker wants to use you in an experiment, see if he can manipulate genes…I said no, if anyone murders you, it'll be me" He continued when he saw the sadness slap onto Dylan's face., she didn't want Stryker anywhere near her.

"You…or a bus maybe"


	18. Time To Be An Idiot

"You're not sleeping" Victor stated with his eyes closed, Dylan turned onto her side and looked at him. She put the nail of her thumb into her mouth and lightly nibbled on the end of it distractedly, "Neither are you"

"I'm not human"

Dylan exaggeratedly frowned, she paused for a moment before reservedly asking, "Do you wish I wasn't?" Victor kept his eyes closed; only manoeuvring his arms behind his head to stretch out further.

"No" He answered decidedly after a brief thought.

"I don't like needles" Dylan said, "There'd be needles, and pain, and they'd cut me up – Stryker would probably tell them to, he-"

"Dylan. Shut up" Victor irritably silenced her tirade.

It made Dylan flash a smile and wriggling closer to him she discarded the duvet around them. A smirk came onto Victor's face when he felt two slender legs straddle his waist, his eyes flickered open.

"You have my attention" Said Creed, moving his hands down to tightly hold Dylan's thighs, gripping them so his claws pricked the surface.

When morning finally came, Dylan rose up and began to get dressed, the early sun only just peeking over the square cluster of buildings and glaring into her eyes. Opening the door to the big room, she grabbed the enormous bag of oats from in the low cupboards and heaving it onto her chest, tipped it into one of the larger pans.

Water fell on her skin when Dylan grabbed the cold milk from the fridge, after pouring a gallon of it to join the oats she replaced it and rubbed the residual onto the shorts she wore. They were the ones she wore when working in the bar, the same ones she wore the first time here.

Breakfast started, Dylan sauntered down one of the long corridors and paused when she neared the end, a few metres away from where the hallway branched right into a new room. With her own, despite being human, good hearing, Dylan crouched low when she heard a whispered voice.

It was Stryker.

"Yesterday proved that she's a hazard Victor, that girl is going to get herself killed being here" The voice tried to reason with its partner, making Dylan pull a disgusted face waiting for Victor to tell him exactly where he could shove the experiment.

"Even if she doesn't die, you've seen her mother. Alzheimer's could set in Dylan as young as it did her parent. She won't remember you" Stryker manipulated cruelly.

Dylan froze, her face crumpled with betrayal, Victor had told the disgusting man about her mother, one of the most personal things in her life. Still Victor remained silent, Stryker wouldn't be talking to a ghost and his silence made Dylan's heart pound against her chest furiously.

"How would you do it?" Victor spoke up finally.

That was the last straw; Dylan quietly made her way back down to the main living room and kitchen area with slow, dragging, heavy steps and picked up the wooden spoon to stir the bubbling grey matter in the pot robotically.

How could he do that? He had told Stryker, of all people, one of the most intimate, personal things about her and then practically sold her off to be experimented on.

Victor Creed was a liar.

Dylan snapped her head up and pulled her hair into a tight pony tail, hearing a chorus of boots marching into the room, she masked her expression. The large white china bowls hit the table with harsh 'clunks' as she placed them in front of each mutant consecutively. Before she could grip the metal handles either side of the shining metal saucepan, Dukes had leant over her and easily plucked up and placed it at the centre of the table.

"Thank you Fred" Dylan said appreciatively before, for her own breakfast, she chose a green apple and nibbled at the flesh while watching the boys devour the creamy breakfast through hard squinting eyes.

Looking down at the apple for a moment, Dylan spied a bruised spot; brown and caved in, soft to touch. Disgusted she reached for the bin and carelessly flung it in the bag.

"Group mission today men! Everyone is going. Bradley, fire the jet up in five minutes" Stryker declared loudly as he came striding into the room, a scowl covering his face. He moved over to the steaming, almost empty, pot of porridge and scooped a heaped stolen spoonful into his mouth.

'Wish I'd poisoned it now' Dylan thought with a smirk as she imagined the blue colour Stryker's face would take on, replacing the way he was now smacking his lips at the meal.

Victor pushed his own empty bowl away from him before leaving his place and marching in front of Dylan's body. His hands rested on Dylan's hips and pulled her towards him forcefully. Creed inclined down and watched her eyes stare directly into his own. She smiled the way she usually would and pushed herself into his body a little.

"Don't be an idiot" Victor said his usual goodbye to her, spun around and left the room. He was the final mutant to shut the door and as the sound of the men's departure reached Dylan's ears, she let her façade fall.

The wooden cupboards behind her were the only thing to support her back as she lost all strength in her body and collapsed. Dylan pushed her wrists onto her forehead as she rocked back and forth aggressively.

Only lasting a brief minute, Dylan ended her small episode and stood up tall, pulling the strands of her hair apart to tighten the style. With long determined strides, she walked back towards Victor's room and threw the door open.

The sound of the massive jet engines firing into action made her jump before she dragged her bag out from under the bed. Dashing around the room she threw all her belongings into the case and zipped it up.

Another burst of spitfire from the machine and Dylan breathed a sigh when she heard it slowly fade away with amazing speed. The bag hit her back heavily as she threw it over her shoulder and opened the door again not looking back.

Human or not, Dylan was betrayed and that was something her character would not put up with. 'How dare he tell Stryker' Dylan mentally spat, as she remained vigilant.

'Time to be an idiot' She thought with a final smirk.


	19. Perspective

The enjoyable late night activities made Victor smile as he vividly pictured the most interesting parts, running around the perimeter of the base camp, his nose working on high alert like that of a bloodhound. The early morning dew seeped into his coat and remained on his hands until he rubbed his palms viciously against the trousers he wore.

Glancing at his watch he noted what time it was and deduced that Dylan would be getting dressed by now, then heading over to the main room. The tree closest to him remained firm as his claws stabbed into it, allowing him to climb the bark easily. He crouched on the highest branch.

On cure Dylan walked out of their room and with jovial, bouncing steps headed to the large grey building. She yawned before turning the door knob and heading indoors. Victor jumped from his perch, dented the one roof as he landed on the surface of it, 'Wade's room' he thought with a smirk.

Disturbing Wade added to Creed's already heightened mood and he decided he would heighten it further. Launching off the roof he landed heavily on the ground and marched around the back of the place; there was another door to the place, one rarely used by the men but there nonetheless.

Opening it his expression dropped instantly and he scowled with distaste. Stryker was in the room the door opened into, spoiling Victor's plans to creep behind Dylan and scare her. He did love catching the girl off guard, enjoying the shocked expression and squeak she would emit before realising it was him. She would hit his arm with a smile and turn back to what she was originally doing.

Stryker nodded to his soldier before speaking firmly, stopping Victor in his tracks as he tried to leave the room as quickly as possible. "I want you to reconsider your answer Victor" He said declaratively, getting straight to the point and taking half a step back when Victor extended his claws.

Creed's scowl deepened, "I've told yo-"

"Yesterday proved that she's a hazard Victor, that girl is going to get herself killed being here" Stryker reasoned and watched Victor allow his head to fall back, close his eyes and inhale deeply to try and calm himself.

He caught the faint smell of Dylan, a sweet relief from Stryker's own personal scent, and then there was another smell, oats. She was cooking porridge, creamy, sweet porridge. The thought distracted him away from his current conversation; Stryker misjudged it as a signal for him to continue.

"Even if she doesn't die, you've seen her mother. Alzheimer's could set in Dylan as young as it did her parent. She won't remember you"

Victor snapped his eyes opened and tipped his head, locking eyes with Stryker in the way a stray lion would look at a lost gaggle of safari go-ers. Waiting for the perfect moment to strike when the initial confusion wore off.

"How would you do it?" Creed growled out lowly, never losing his focus on the man's eyes. Stryker faltered under the scrutiny and stammered out,

"The procedure would involve the injection of-"

"She doesn't like needles-" Victor stated, marching towards his target and intimidatingly standing millimetres in front of him. "-and I've given you my answer on more than one occasion, so if you mention taking my girl one more time I swear I'll remove your voice box myself"

He reached out and touched the middle of Stryker's throat with a talon, newly sharpened from the tree climb and traced the outline of his Adam's apple roughly, drawing blood. Then he spun and took a step forward, remembering something he turned back to Stryker and grabbed his lightly bleeding throat firmly.

"Keeping tabs on me as well?" He cocked an eyebrow as he recalled Stryker mentioning Dylan's mother, "Do _that _again and not only will your spy end up in the ground but you'll lose a lot more than a voice box, _slowly" _

Stryker nodded and Victor released him, rubbing the man's blood onto his trousers and frowning when he heard the pattering of other boots making their way to the kitchen. Great, that was his morning entertainment gone up in smoke.

He moved his seat out, dragging it to the edge of the table and watching the other mutants as well as Dylan as she meticulously set about serving the breakfast quickly. As he spooned the rich mixture into his mouth, Victor licked his lips, enjoying one of his favourited breakfast meals.

Out of the corner of his eye he noted Dylan discard her own measly breakfast of a green, sour looking apple and look at him before snapping her eyes to Stryker who came in. Victor curled his mouth into a satisfied smirk when he saw the scowl covering the boss man's face.

As he announced the new mission, Victor touched his fangs with his tongue and manoeuvred over to Dylan, his mood peaking with a promised hunt. Grabbing her hips Victor inclined his head towards her, smirking at the smile she gave him, he liked the smile.

"Don't be an idiot" He said his usual farewell to her and spun around and out the door. The statement came out more firm than previously, his sensitive nose picking up a slight frustration coming from her. Victor left the room with no other thoughts other than how he would make sure the target mutants would fall at his hands and his hands only, the other men wouldn't get a look in.

He put the abnormal, frustrated scent down to the fact his frail didn't have a lot of sleep last night, not much at all. Still in a good mood, Victor leapt forward onto his palms and pelted from the back of the Team straight to the front.

"Show off" His ears picked up the insult off Wade and stood to his full height, turning back to see Wilson, the next in line mutant.

"Keep up Nancy" Creed stated before settling into his chosen seat and buckling the harness tightly.


	20. Easy Hunting

The mission took longer than expected, three days it took before they arrived home and instantly Victor had a deep onset feeling that something wasn't right. Marching direct to his room Victor wrenched opened the door and inhaled deeply. There it was, Dylan's floral scent, the scent he appreciated so much. It was faint though, extremely faint, too faint for her to have been here within two days.

Walking in slowly he began to pivot his head around, trying to deduce what had happened and with more determination, he picked the entire bed up and upturned it furiously so it flung across the other side of the room. There was no bag there. Her bag was gone. She'd left.

Victor reacted badly.

Worse than badly, Victor had a complete meltdown and couldn't restrain the beast inside him. He roared, bellowed and thundered as he launched around the room. The walls relinquished as his claws dragged through them, slashing and cutting the surface.

By the time he managed to slightly calm himself, Victor was breathing deeply, harshly inhaling the oxygen around him greedily. The talons of his hands cut into his skin and lingered there long enough to free a stem of blood to cascade into the knot of his face.

"Humans are the ones you want to watch out for eh?"

Stryker was in the door way, peaking through the open door and looking around to judge the chaotic mess Victor caused. Lashing around with diluted eyes, Victor hurled himself forward into a quick, determined march, pausing as he drew level with Stryker.

A calloused hand knotted in the light blue shirt the Colonel wore, smearing the lingering red blood from the land lacerations onto the material, staining it.

"I'm bringing her back" He said angrily.

Stryker tried to cover the self-satisfied smirk that crept onto his face after he nodded a serious confirmation, Victor kept his eyes in a steel expression as he looked ahead. Only walking as a man for a brief moment, Creed launched onto all fours and sprang off the buildings as he went on another hunt.

"Well played Black" Stryker smiled and looked around the room a further time, the girl couldn't have played into his hands more if she tried.

Dylan went back to her old life, how could she do anything different? Maybe if her mother wasn't in the picture, maybe in a further away residential home she would have moved. Perhaps it was an idiotic move to believe that the mutants would forget about her, or if they did come looking, assume she was smart enough to start again somewhere further away.

"What can I get you Sweetie?" said Dylan as she leant across the bar to hear the lumberjack stereotypes order. Nodding she collected the strong liquor from the bevelled container and placed it on the bar alongside the man's change.

Adjusting her white top she smirked smugly at the way her boss had taken her back into employment the instant Dylan asked for her job back. Maybe the sour old man had finally come to his senses and realised the amount of money she earns him.

"You doing ok Cupcake?" One of the veteran bartenders asked her, smiling wide enough to reveal the ruby smudges streaked across her front teeth. The woman twirled her peroxide dyed hair around her index finger and Dylan nodded her head lightly, turning away her eyes began to jewel with tears.

It would be better if nobody asked her about her disappearance, or reminding her of the tragedy one of her best friends befell in this very bar. Dylan wished she bought a jumper with her as she said her farewells and braved the turbulent weather outside.

Finally at her apartment building, Dylan jogged to the side of the building, looking up at the mixing grey clouds above her head before slamming her fist into the red brick wall. The clatter of the ladder falling made her spine tingle and hastily she climbed the frame, eager to be back inside the warmth of her place.

The metal under her feet rattled under her footfalls and she ignored all the un-curtained windows, only focussing on pulling the white wood frame of her own window open and jumping inside. Dylan inhaled sharply as she turned the light on.

The apartment was destroyed.

The television was face down on the floor, the baby blue sofa unturned and spewing out soft padding, objects all over the apartment had repositioned themselves on the floor, scattering out randomly. Dylan's heart began to beat faster; she had been lucky enough to avoid any burglaries since living here.

Her white plimsolls picked and tip toed the way through the chaos slowly and she began to walk around the place. Water began to build up a glaze over her eyes and she circled on the spot in disbelief at the mess.

She only needed to touch to sofa for it to fall back with a heavy smack. Dylan sat on the soft surface and buried her head in her hands; she sighed distressfully and leant back fully. Resting her head on the back cushion she kept her eyes closed for a moment before opening them a tad.

When they did open slowly, seeing the sight in front of her made them snap open fully and take another huge inhale of vital oxygen to calm down her system. Five parallel indentations scarred the wall in front of her. Dylan walked over to the laceration and ran her fingers over the marks.

Beige paint mixed with dry wall came away at the light caress and plonked and plinked over the floor, down to her feet. Angrily she hit the wall and spun around when a voice growled out,

"Surprise"

Victor was standing in front of the window entrance, leaning back arrogantly with a casual smirk on face, faking a calm exterior to hide a rippling surface of anger beneath.

Dylan stormed over to him and smacked his chest in vanity, knowing that it did no damage what so ever. "Are you fucking insane?"

Creed grabbed her wrists tightly and moved forward so he was at his tallest, looking destructively down at her fragile body. Her mouth twisted in a sour expression as she kept her features hard.

"Only a little" Victor answered with a chuckle mingled quick exhale.


	21. Just Watch

"So what can I do for you?" Dylan said, pulling away from him angrily and walking over to the kitchen, leaning her back on the outer kitchen counter. Stalking forward himself Victor barely allowed any distance between them and slammed his fist down on the one side of her.

"You knew this would happen, you don't walk away" Victor growled out, his fangs catching the light and gleaming dangerously white. "Think I wouldn't come after you?"

Scowling didn't put her hand on his chest, trying to gain some authority of the situation and distance herself from him. He ignored the futile gesture and pushed further against Dylan to prove the power and dominance he had.

"Stop." Said Dylan as she took a deep breath, and removed her hand to put it at her side, moving her head to look away from his black eyes. When Victor harshly grabbed her jaw between his thumb and index finger, her face darkened angrily.

"Arranged it with Stryker did you?" She snapped viciously, furrowing her eyebrows and narrowing her eyes judgementally. Dylan ignored the brief flash of confusion on Creed's face and continued her tirade, scornfully spitting "I hate you"

Victor tightened his grip on her jaw and brought it closer to his face, dangerously inspecting it as he tilted it at different angles. "Join the queue Princess"

Dylan steadied her breathing as both of them remained silent, Victor still intently looking at her when she closed her eyes. The silence was tense, waiting for something to snap and the tension to break like a splintering piece of wood.

Opening her eyes, a new sheen of moisture was over them, threatening to break loose and run over the smooth planes of her face.

"Why would you do it?" Dylan asked meekly, afraid of the response she would get when Victor would growl out an answer. He didn't respond. Creed decided that this reunion was taking too long and in a quick fluid motion had tossed Dylan over his shoulder heavily, clapping a talon extended hand on her ass.

A smirk curled over his face when he heard Dylan squeak in surprise, this was how it was supposed to be. The interrogation would come when he'd returned his hunt back to the room; things would get back to normal then.

"You should have found a better hiding place" He stated, using the actual door for its intended purpose as a way in and out, ignoring the window and leaving.

"Why make it more fun for you?" She said reservedly, propping herself up with her elbow and trying to keep steady with Victor's harsh bounding steps down the stairs. Dylan's head bobbed up and down comically, but the serious expression on her face was no laughing matter.

Dylan lost her balance suddenly and used her two palms to prevent her head colliding with Creed's back. Victor had halted in his tracks suddenly and began to walk forward slowly down the corridor. As he moved Dylan saw why. A door to another apartment had opened, streaming light into the otherwise dim lit area.

Victor had ignored the middle aged man who looked aghast at the scene, but Dylan smiled with exaggerated sarcasm. "Hey Mr Jenkins, nothing to worry about just getting kidnapped for the second time by a secret gang of mutants, no need to alert the police, just watch"

The apartment tenant didn't move, just remained frozen in the doorway and watched as the pair exited the building into the cold night.

"Trying to get the neighbours killed again?" Victor rumbled out the question gruffly, too set on his hunter gatherer role to maim anyone tonight. Maybe later.

As Dylan got carried away, she shivered, the wind clawing down the bare skin of her arms and legs without mercy. After a fairly decent walk they had bobbed and weaved close to the base, hyped up Victor made to dash across the road.

Headlights came from nowhere, racing down the cemented path and suddenly connected with his body before skidding to a screeching stop. A screeching stop shadowed by Dylan's momentary frightened scream.

Victor had the full impact of the vehicle, his reflexes dropping Dylan in front of him and spinning around behind her so the bumper slammed into his back. The sound was awful but Creed, stood up with a load groan, angry at the interruption and rolled his shoulders back to adjust them into the normal position.

Suddenly he remembered the girl; she had collapsed to the floor, led down on the harsh black of the cold concrete with closed eyes and ajar mouth. Storming over, Victor stood above her with each leg either side of her body. He knelt down and grabbed her jaw, holding her up.

"Hey! Look at me" He ordered firmly. Victor strained his ears to block out the rumble of the vehicle making its hasty get away. A hit and run, classy. Like the fluttering beat of a hummingbird's wings he picked up Dylan's heartbeat and ordered her to look at him more forcefully.

Flickering her eyes open, the pupils searched around her confusingly before locking on to Victor's own.

"Are you ok?" She asked, throwing her head back and exhaustedly laying on the road when the feral chose to remain silent.

Victor picked her up again and carefully folded her over his shoulder for the second time, walking across the rest of the road and weaving into the hidden base camp. Passing by all the military building he put Dylan in his room and left again.

Pointedly his tongue touched the tips of the sharpest teeth occupying his mouth and retreated his hands deep into the pockets of his thick black coat. Knocking three times on the door he journeyed to, Victor's scowl didn't lift once.

Stryker answered the door with a tired expression before the lazy skin of his face twitched into a hard, formal expression.

"You got her back?" The Colonel asked firmly, surprised at the little time it took for Victor to retrieve her. 'Must have used his powers of persuasion' Stryker's inner monologue commentated scornfully.

Victor didn't answer, keeping his hands firmly in their pockets so the wilful talons didn't reveal themselves without his permission, he said gruffly,

"I've reconsidered"


	22. Spit

Victor didn't go back to the room; he crouched high on the roof of the building instead watching as Stryker walked in with a cluster of the human soldiers, rubbing his hands together before smashing the door open.

He listened to the ructions occurring inside with a down turned, sour expression that twitched in unison with his extended, stained claws. The points accusingly dug into his skin, remaining there to allow a trickle of blood to course through his fingers and refusing his mutation permission to heal the wounds.

"You finally got into him then?" Dylan asked spitefully her voice tight as she tried to keep a firm hold of the composure. Stryker didn't give an answer, merely stalked forward and pulled at the one side of his unzipped jacket, reaching into a hidden pocket. There were two fragments of a device; a thin pointed grey needle and a container filled with clear thick liquid.

"I don't like needles" Said Dylan as she watched the aged lines covering Stryker's hand screw the two pieces together and signal the soldiers briefly.

They walked forward with no particular pace, watching as Dylan pressed herself against the dry wall till her shoulder blades hurt. Hands grabbed her and forced the little frame of her body to the floor, raising the white t-shirt she wore so the skin of her hip was exposed. The Colonel plunged the needle into the flesh and pressed down on the syringe, pushing the paste into her system.

Dylan's eyes grew weak, the lids closed with slow hesitation before snapping open and closing again, slower this time. The process repeated until she was completely consumed by darkness.

As the skivvies picked up her body their exit was halted when Victor dropped into the door way, Stryker walked out and put his hand on the feral's tensed shoulder.

"Don't forget, the girl's mine" Creed warned, only stepping of the way for the men to pass with his frail when Stryker answered solidly,

"Rest assured Captain".

When Dylan woke up from her enforced slumber, she was at the end of two columns, a network of grid structured cubicles. Her own cell was last in the line, away from the others in the centre of the centred pathway against the dark brick wall.

There was a pounding at the back of her skull and Dylan put her hand to the sensitive area, pushing her hair up as she rubbed it soothingly. A groan escaped her mouth and she pushed herself back, using the wall as a support. Looking down at her legs, Dylan noticed her legs were no longer in the shorts she wore to work but in a simple pair of burgundy overalls, the sleeves were tied around her waist and a dishevelled white vest covered her torso.

Looking up she noticed the mutants. Several of them, one in each consecutive small prison and all with different characteristic features that made Dylan push herself further back with a shocked gasp.

"Human chick is awake" A boy narrated when his eyes locked with hers. There were thick elastic ropes encircling him, suspending him from above the concrete and vibrating manically when he employed his mutation of blurring speed.

At the very far end of the room Dylan watched as the heavy metal gate rose up with a grinding groan, scraping against its frames. All the room was silent then as the Colonel, with his hands knotted behind his back marched slowly towards her. His feet tapping a monotonous clack as he moved. Dylan scowled and stood up weakly, walking to the front of her cell to meet the military clad enemy.

Only the strong frame was between them, Dylan antithesized Stryker's amused expression with a hardened, emerald stare and a firm lined mouth.

"You finally got your own room" Said Stryker, his mouth wrinkling at one side, over his one cheek as he smirked. Dylan laughed with an unassuming exhale, flickering her eyes back before putting them back to Stryker's own. Stryker inched closer to the metal grid, whispering dangerously,

"It was easy than I thought getting Victor to hand give you up, he just rolled over, like a puppy"

Before Stryker could move, Dylan edged her head back, collected a small pool of saliva in her mouth and then released it, spitting straight into the Colonel's face. Their expressions flipped. Looking at Stryker's disgruntled face as he took a hasty step back and rubbed his face clean, Dylan's mouth curled into a wide satisfied smile revealing her white teeth.

Not needing to say anything else, Dylan turned around and retreated back inside the cage, looking back at Stryker in time to see the familiar signal of his index and middle finger. Instantly two men in mint blue shirts stormed in, her cell opening and allowing the burly men to march in and grab her harshly.

Dylan began to panic, her breath starting to get more rapid and frequent as her eyes grew wide and looked around desperately. The staff halted in front of Stryker and he renewed his self-satisfied grin, "You may wanna go to a happy place kid, there's needles up there"

This index finger pointed up but Dylan refused to follow the movement, there was no way she wanted a preview to what her body was about to go through. As they carried Dylan forward, the suspended mutant who announced her awakening watched, stating,

"Human chicks got balls" resulting in Dylan allowing a momentary smile to tweak her mouth.

Victor, stalking back and forth in the high balcony of the hospital like room, flitting his gaze to the several grey televisions on the ceiling. He marched away firmly when he saw the boys begin to climb the stairs to where he was.

He was watching when Dylan woke up, watching when Stryker walked down to her, watching as Stryker said something that upset her, resulting in Dylan spitting disrespectfully at him. Victor smirked at that, his inner monologue claiming, 'That's my girl'

Leaving the room he burst into a feral sprint, deciding to go on the next hunt that instant before any part of him could listen or watch Dylan in the sterilized room.


	23. A Hiccup

Dylan was weak, she pushed her knees up to her chest and lazily draped her hands over the joints, individually moving their fingers as she rest her head against the wall with her eyes closed.

"You ever get tired of playing with mutants, feel free to come back to your own species" A gruff voice sounded as a pair of shoes clicked against the stone floor. Dylan wrinkled her nose unhappily and scoffed harshly,

"Bill, insulting me isn't gonna make anything happen" She answered, ignoring the man's chuckle as he walked away dejectedly. Dylan sighed and moved her hands to apple pressure onto her temples, vainly trying to warn off a persistent headache that chased her through day.

Standing up, Dylan stumbled before walking to the front of the cage and leaning her forearm against the metal. "Wish I had a bungee, that thing looks pretty fun" She said with a meek smile.

"I'd give you mine, but I'm a little tied up" The boy answered with a charmed smirk as he gestured to the elastic cuffs with circling index fingers. Dylan couldn't make out the true colour of his dark eyes in the dimly lit room, but his white blonde hair struck out vibrantly.

"Hm, I like you Maximoff" Dylan stated before snapping her eyes up when the boy corrected her,

"Quicksilver"

Dylan didn't like the alias but nonetheless nodded her head acceptably with a smile, "Quicksilver" she repeated respectfully. Another mutant spoke up then, "So what do they call you Dylan?"

A boy with curled hair asked loudly from the centre of the cells after turning into a visible person, unhidden behind a cocoon of aggressive grey smoked wind. "She's a human Ray, they don't get nick names" A quiet boy with reptilian green skin interrupted.

"No, we don't get nicknames Ray" Dylan answered, unfazed by the insult to her species. She sat down with her legs folded over her thighs comfortably, wincing when she moved her shoulder. The dark pupils of her eyes flickered around the other people that she shared company with in the prison, interested in their mutations.

A sudden feeling in the pit of her stomach made Dylan lash out her hand quickly, interlocking with the metal grid to keep her steady, fearing she'd hit the ground hard if she let go.

"When I get out of her, I'm going after the dude with the claws"

'Victor' Dylan thought angrily, tightening her grip even more and giving a single clearing cough. She didn't know who said it but it sparked the thoughts again, she hated over thinking and the thoughts set the unpleasant feeling deeper in her belly.

"Hey! Dylan you alright? Hey!" Quicksilver tried to get her attention as he jostled the restraints against him, gaining the guard's attention. They marched in quickly, failing to slam open the door in time to catch Dylan.

The little fingers of her hand flexed in a relinquishing of strength, releasing their grip of the cage bars and subsequently forcing gravity to pull her little body into the solid concrete with a resonating smack.

The reptile skinned boy rolled his shoulder and turned away from the scene. Through the tight mesh of the muzzle covering his mouth, he pitifully commentated, "Humans". If he were able to, the long rolled up length of tongue would have flicked out tauntingly, a habit.

"Shut your mouth Mort" One of the female mutants demanded harshly, pressing her seemingly human body against the rails of her own cage so she could better look at the scene. Bill and a more rotund guard were carrying her away quickly, moving down the wide corridor now.

One of them pressed the intercom button of his overly eccentric walkie-talkie, firmly ordering, "Get the two Dr's ready in the main theatre, heading there now…and tell Stryker"

"It's Toad" The mutant corrected, offended at being labelled by his human name demonstrated his own mutation by putting his hand on the side of the cage he'd been confined to. Gently he tugged at it, smirking when he felt the resin of his pores stick. Then, moving sharply he put his other hand there, and scaled the wall, dangling from the ceiling he cracked his neck and looked at the pretty girl in the guard's arms.

He had to hand it to the guards, despite carrying an extra tire of weight around their stomachs, they carried her out fast. Fast but stupid, Dylan's head was bobbing and weaving all over the place like a monster truck nodding dog, the guard's failing to appropriately support her head.

"What happened?" Stryker demanded as he strode into the room and slammed the door behind him so harshly it rebounded open, swinging loosely on its fragile hinges. The guards began to blather, walking away from the scientists analysing Dylan's motionless body to update him.

Bill, the higher ranking security spoke firmly, "We don't know, she was fine and then her eyes scrunched up really tight and she fainted" The blank expression on the man's face made Stryker curl his hands into fists and push the men aside.

"Get back to work" He ordered.

The female Dr, with plain, tightly restrained hair looked up for a brief moment at Stryker before continuing to examine the patient, injecting a yellow tinged liquid into the crook of Dylan's elbow to ensure she didn't wake up. Another Dr began periodically placing small heat monitor sensors on her chest.

"Her body's immune system is rejecting the gene, attacking the molecules with antibodies-" The woman only looked up when an interrupting pair of boots slammed onto the concrete after dropping from the ceiling.

Victor's claws began to wriggle free as he stalked forward angrily.

"Her body's shutting itself down" The woman finally said, looking between the men and then quickly setting her hands to work, attempting to stable Dylan. Stryker turned worriedly to Victor and he had a right to, the claws of Creed's hands had launched out and grabbed him with extreme force.

"It's a hiccup Victor" The boss said with a shaky breath.

Victor looked from Stryker to Dylan, only catching a brief glimpse of her calm, motionless face before the white coat of the Dr sheltered it. His dilated pupils snapped back to Stryker, narrowing under the arches of Victor's accusing eyebrows.

"Just remember, she dies, you die…slowly"


	24. The Broken Doll

Dylan was relocated since her sudden collapse, even further away from the mutants in the columned cells. In the main hospital style, experimenting room, at the very back of room on the right was another cage. A grid like door had replaced the original wooden one, and as far as size and comfort it was in the same league as her original prison. Dylan hated it even more though.

Rather than a see through cage, it was a room, covered in dirty white tiles and a plain sheet of marble laminate was the floor. Same as the hospital. Her new accommodation was more enclosed, Dylan didn't like that, afraid they would forget her but as an upgrade, she did have a bed. A single matrass slotted against the back wall and covered in a thing burgundy sheet that matched the imposed overalls she wore.

Dylan was slumped on the only source of comfort in the room, the lumpy matrass and curled the material of the blanket into her fists before letting it fall between her legs carelessly.

Wake Up.

Shower.

Analysis.

Experiments.

Analysis.

Wake Up.

Shower.

Analysis.

Experiments.

Analysis.

Her routine crawled by in a slow, monotonous tug with only Stryker's ever contented smirk as an audience. A door slammed shut but she didn't raise her head, and she let it hang still when a shadowed haunted the front of the room. The door was opened and one of the guards picked her up and held Dylan supportively against his lumbering frame.

The Dr patrolled them down the stairs and down the corridor paralleled by the mutant occupied prison cell. Dylan looked at the ground as she mumbled down concrete path, nearing the end her ears twitched as a voice whispered,

"Dylan? You alright?" The voice urged. It was Maximoff, no, Quicksilver, leaning into the bars to try and get a better perspective of Dylan as best he could with the bungee cords restraining him.

"Yeah…yeah, I'm fine" Dylan said, but her eyes kept forward on the grey ground until she entered the room on the left side, where the analysis always took place.

Victor hadn't watched any experiments that happened, any analysis, or seen anything of Dylan since her collapse. There were more mutants on his scavenger hunt list, and they were in locations further and further away from Three Mile Island.

Approaching the main building of the nuclear site, Victor scrunched his hands together as he smelt a tinge of copper in the air. Knowing that Dylan was in this place and out of his control made his claws wriggle free wilfully, he couldn't help it. But Victor was stubborn, a quality that had the tendency to trample over any other vice or characteristic.

He wasn't going to go and see Dylan while she was here.

Launching up the outer walls of the structure, Victor smirked as his claws made an easy victim of the concrete, he didn't feel like using doors. The large sky window was ajar, releasing the thick air from inside the building and working as a natural coolant.

Easily he slotted in and grabbed onto the roof top steels frames, flicking himself on and sauntering with lumbering grace down the beam. The mutants were below him, all caged up in their cells with the same glum, withdrawn expression pooled onto their faces.

Dropping down to another low beam, the metal clanged under his weight and shuddered before Victor relieved his weight off it quickly and hopped over the half wall into the main hospital room. Another light dance of copper dusted the air, a more familiar copper scent.

Dylan was here; he placed the smell instantly and rigidly turned to the offset room, hidden from view but the edge of the framed door in his eyes. Turning away he opened his coat and pulled out four of the mutants samples held in long black secure tubes and clinked them onto the metal table near him.

Inching around Victor marched doggedly from the centre of the room to the direction of the exit, but halted with globed shoulders as he got within a few yards of the door. His foot when out again as he tried to force himself out, then in an instant he snapped around.

Victor kept his speed at a steady pace as he began to walk towards the end of the room, his eyes beginning to get a better look at the inside of the room.

Once again, as a shadow intruded over the door opening and darkened the interior, Dylan didn't look up. In the usual slumped position at the furthest corner of her cell, she kept her head hanging low. Victor's eyes looked at her through narrow analyst eyes.

She was wearing the same burgundy overalls, tied at the waist with a white vest tucked neatly under the material. As she moved her arm a little, the thin blanket unveiled her arm. Victor's eyes locked onto the transparent gauze wrapped tightly around her arm, covering 5 parallel hair thin lacerations that throbbed red.

"Hey" Victor firmly said in attempt to gain Dylan's attention and make her look at him. He needed to see her eyes. Dylan's jaw twitched as she recognised the voice and scowled deeply, moving her head back the lank locks of hair fell back.

Dylan kept her head facing the wall in front of her until the back of her skull touched the back wall tile, using it as support she slowly turned to look at Victor. Slowly holding her eyelids open heavily.

Under her eyelids were purple tinged, sleep deprived sallow skin and her pointed cheek bones were more prominent. Victor noticed the expression she gave him, it was lazy, but the edges of her mouth twitched upwards in a meek attempt at a smile.

But she didn't answer him, and pivoted her body slowly around, carefully turning away from Victor so she faced the wall. Victor pounded the metal bars with the harsh palm of his hand and growled lowly but he got no response, nothing.

The vacant expression was horrible, and Victor scrunched up his eyes in attempt to rid his thoughts of her despite the fact his feet remained immobile at the cell door. Just at that moment the door opened and patent shoes began to clack against the concrete.

"Victor?" Stryker asked apprehensively as he approached,

"You broke her" Victor snarled out accusingly.


	25. A Heroic Villain

"You broke her" Victor repeated maliciously, crunching the metal around his paw making it bend and relinquish under the grip. Stryker paused where he was, halting like a frozen rabbit with a trembling exterior that desperately tried to mask itself.

"The gene is fighting with us Victor, it won't sync in to her immune system. Instead of helping Dylan repair anybody damage, it's stopping the original antibodies." Stryker explained, keeping the language as jargon free in attempt to calm the solider down.

Victor walked over, looking down at Stryker and curling his lip over in a grimacing expression before he quickly grabbed the front of Stryker's jacket.

"I told you she was still mine, I told you to give her the gene not fucking kill her" Victor shouted, he looked up when the door opened and a nurse walked in, retracing her steps and stumbling back out the door when she saw the altercation.

"Dylan isn't dead V-" said Stryker

"She's not far from it!" Victor yelled interrupting the manipulating smooth tone Stryker tried to employ to calm the situation.

"I need the gene to manifest in her system and then she'll be fine" Stryker put his hands over Victor's paws and firmly brushed them off of his jacket, brushing down the material and frowning when he saw the fray of material caused by Victor's claws.

Victor rubbed his lips together, with a frown, trying to decide how to handle the situation. He wasn't the sly brother, and if he wanted something he took it, now Victor was conflicted.

"We'll be going after Logan soon" Stryker changed the topic and put his hands regimentally at his sides, "I trust you're up to handling it?"

Victor snarled in response and Stryker turned away with a triumphant smile on his face, Victor watched him go before his conscious kicked in and he growled loudly, more animalistic to gain dominance over the apparently ended conversation again.

Quickly he turned around and moved back to where Dylan resided, his hand took up its last position and interlinked with the metal door before gripping it harshly and pulling. Easily the locked gate came away from its hinges and in a swift movement Victor threw the metal gate away, making it clatter to the floor, echoing its pain.

Stryker's expression faltered when he heard the noise and looking around he scowled at the wayward solider destroying one of the experiments of his own accord. There was a large button like red emergency leaver on the wall and, for a moment Stryker's hand inclined for it. Then his common sense processed the events.

Victor was an animal, more so than Logan and all he had to do was point him in the right direction. With a deep resentful frown as he thought about the fragile blonde, Stryker consoled himself in the knowledge Agent Wolverine's experiment would be starting up, soon.

Walking hesitantly in, Victor collected Dylan in his arms, being uncharacteristically ginger and pulled her up away from the tangle of blanket. He growled when a small squeak of protest rushed passed white cracked lips.

Stryker was waiting when they walked out; he kept his stare with Victor all the length he travelled till the feral came level with him.

"She's going to die Victor" He said declaratively, hoping the realisation stopped Victor long enough for him to come to the senses Stryker had put in place. Creed did stop; he turned around with a slow threating turn of his spine, inching down to Stryker face.

"Give me the runt's location, in a week I'm going after him." Stryker looked at Victor's light reflecting canines rather than his eyes, and drew back, reservedly daring himself to ask a final time.

"…and Dylan? She's going to die Creed" The boss shouted to the planes of Victor's black coat clad back. The man didn't stop a chuckle with no trace of humour echoed around the room.

"She's back with her murderer _Sir" _His voice was filled with a firm, no more time for talking defiance and quickly, with long extending strides he left Stryker with a different look on his face. A sour puckered lip expression that reinforced Stryker's disappointed anger as he slammed the wall next to him.

"Hey" Victor jostled the girl in his arms, insisting that she open her eyes again so that the green orbs fluttered around and flittered over his face. Again the thin edges of Dylan's mouth tweaked up against her sallow cheeks, weakly she used her arm to push a rueful strand of hair from her face.

Dylan closed her eyes again, settling her hands into the cushion of her lap as she allowed herself to be carried along. Victor's scowl deepened, he didn't like the silence he hated it and unmoving his stare kept looking at her.

A brief moment passed before Dylan moved her lips slowly, replying after an elongated pause, but replying none the less.

"Hey" She breathed out, inhaling the cool air around her and exhaling with a little fog of white evaporating smoke.

A smirk curled over Victor's face hearing the voice, his tongue dapped at the tips of the two pointed fangs in his mouth. "Decided you didn't want to be a mutant then Princess?...You gave them Dr Folk a good fight"

Dylan hummed what Victor thought was a laugh, it wasn't like her usual laugh that ignited the room as she allowed the peals of laughter to run passed her wide lips.

"One of them smelt like soup" Dylan commented randomly, keeping her eyes shut and slowly settling her breaths till they became deep and steady, soundtracking her as she drifted into a quiet slumber.

Victor's face was soft and he picked up his pace keeping his arms steady, eager to get away from the fog covered dim lit nuclear place. He frowned and his brows darted together as his mind kept throwing unwanted thoughts at him.

One of his paws felt the faint ridges of Dylan's ribs and his teeth gritted in a deep line, this was every bit Stryker's fault, as well as his own.

'She isn't going to die' His monologue thought with determination.


	26. Disorientated

Dylan didn't open her eyes when she woke up, instead nestled further into the comforting duvet that encased her full body and pacified her as much as the feather stuffed pillow layers under her head. When Dylan's drowsy head realised the comfort she jolted up with a deep gasp. Quickly she used her little hands to brush the stray blonde hairs from her face and look around.

"What on Earth?" Dylan elongated the rhetorical question and shifted her legs from the cocoon, staring down at her bare legs and then pulling the material of her top away to inspect it.

Instead of the ugly burgundy overalls and dirt smudged white vest, Dylan had apparently changed into a pair of plain black knickers and a loose fitted black t-shirt that draped over her fragile body.

The room she was in simple; the floor was laminate and clean, the walls were beige with evenly spaced green flowers in opaque glass mounted vases and there were a variety of worn books stacked neatly in a geometric bookcase. Looking down at the double bed she slept in, Dylan squinted and left the room, the white sheets hurting her sensitive eyes.

Gingerly Dylan tip toed through the door and looked either side, trying to judge whether there was anybody else there, and whose house this was. She crept out with her arm still clutching the wall. A chunky mahogany dining table was directly outside the room, but she ignored that and moved forward. The living room, with two plush sofas directed at a large telly wasn't walled off but the wall Dylan had her palm against had a door embedded in it. She opened it.

Now in the kitchen there was still no trace of anybody else but, on the granite worktop was a carelessly ripped piece of paper, jagged at the top from where someone had torn it from its book.

_Don't be an idiot._

_Stay here._

_Be back soon. _

_-V_

Dylan picked up the light note and brought it closer to her eyes, rushing the green orbs over the calligraphic handwriting before putting it back down and breathing out in a deep, exhausted exhale. Retracing her steps Dylan walked by the way she came but rather than going into the same room she slept in, her feet climbed an adjacent set of stairs.

She found the bathroom easy enough, and Dylan was extremely pleased with what she saw. The large room was clean and tidy, quickly she spun the hot water tap so a surge of scorching liquid burst from the nozzle. Eagerly Dylan grabbed a variety of strong smelling colourful bottles and consecutively squirted globs of the gel into the tub. Sitting on the cold porcelain edge she watched as a result, mountains of honeycomb bubbled foam built up as the bath filled.

After a vigorous session of scrubbing, brushing, buffing and soaking, Dylan felt a lot better, much more herself but she couldn't shake the lethargy that clung to her bones.

As the door slammed open and shut automatically with the rebounded energy, Dylan snapped up but winced as she grazed the lacerations of her shoulder, moving too fast and causing the bruises over her body to throb.

Victor sauntered in slowly, keeping his gaze locked on Dylan's and watching as she stood up to see him. A silence came over the pair and Dylan stood up slowly, when Victor inclined forward she snatched the arm closest to him back.

A growl rumbled from Creed's throat and that made Dylan harden her expression to keep the eye contact with his dilated pupils.

"What?" said Victor with annoyance at being brushed away.

Dylan softened her expression a little, and looked down briefly before she looked at Victor again. Her arm crossed over and held the other, crossing over her stomach protectively.

"I don't want you to touch me" Dylan answered meekly.

Victor took a step forward and at the same time Dylan took one back and raised both her slender arms up so the defended her chest. "I can touch you if I wa-"

"No" Interrupted Dylan, continuing despite the snarl she earned, "I have been drugged, sliced and abused because of you. I've had strangers try and tamper with my genetics because of you, and I've been on my own without anybody because of you"

Pierced by the words anger flared in Victor's chest but he ground the frustration into his hands that became fists but remained clawless. "You spoke to me last night" He stated.

Quickly Dylan answered, "I was on drugs Victor, and I can't tell you what ones because I lost count" her voice was hard but after spitting out the answer she softened the tone after a defeated sigh. "I want to go home…whose house is this?"

"I don't know, suburban folk, their on vacation" Victor answered as he ignored the first part of her sentence. The claws were beginning to wriggle free when Dylan nodded meekly and turned her head to reveal one of the more aggressive bruises nestled beneath her jaw line.

He did that.

Marching forward Victor left the room and snatched a set of keys from one of the overly quaint key holders and held them out by the tips of his nails for Dylan to take in her palms.

"I'm not letting you run away Princess, I'm here till Sunday" Victor let the keys drop and Dylan clutched them harshly in her grip; wordlessly she walked out of the door and shut it gently behind her after flicking her gaze back to Victor's tense body.

'You let her go' Victor's mind taunted him maliciously, 'You let her go and she's going to run…gonna get herself killed running from you'

Now his talons were full extended, he whirled around to launch after her but balling his fists together the sharp points pricked his skin and drew blood. 'She'll come back' He argued internally, adding 'I'll get her back if she doesn't'

Itching with frustration and anger, Victor hooked his paws under the sofa and lifted it up with an easy motion, flipping it away from him and panting deeply.

'She'll come back' He thought again, trying to persuade himself.


	27. Vincent

Dylan didn't flinch when she opened the door and was reunited with the destruction coating her cosy apartment. Her feet kicked away the little stockpile of newspapers on the mat, making them rustle in protest. As she closed the door Dylan leant against the hard surface and closed her eyes.

In attempt to shake the lethargy she walked into the kitchen and hastily pulled open the cupboard under the sink, dragging out an array of cleaning products and throwing them into a found grey, empty bucket. She winced as the plastic bottles clattered around noisily.

First she began to force the sofa padding back under the tight upholstered material, fetched a throw blanket from the airing cupboard and tossed it over so as to hide the cuts. Positioning the cushions back in their appropriate places Dylan moved on to picking up all the debris on the floor.

After the floor was visible she went up a gear, furiously scrubbing and polishing her little nest until it went over and above the cleanliness of its original state, pre-destruction.

Happy with her work Dylan put her hand to her head, overcome by the tiredness and ache of her back she sat down. Slowly her eyelids began to close protectively and once again she nestled into the bosom of comfort that her apartment always injected into her.

The nightmare that came with the spur of the moment nap rattled Dylan's frame and she awoke with wide frightened eyes and deep panting breaths.

"You need to pull yourself together Dill" Her voice floated between her lips and scolded Dylan for allowing too many lingering thoughts to bombard the tenderness of her sore head. When she got up, Dylan decided to get dressed in her own clothes and go and see one person she loved.

Her mom.

"Mum?" Dylan peeked into the room; it hadn't been easy persuading the receptionist to allow her in without notice. Good job Dylan had artistically covered the bags under her eyes and selected a long sleeved t-shirt to hide other blemishes. No way would she be allowed in so distressed.

Darla Black rose up from her resting, horizontal position and smiled widely at Dylan who returned the gesture with a meeker expression. "Sweetie, what are you doing here?"

Dylan's bottom lip began to quiver with uncontrollable shivers and she quickly moved over to her mother and hugged her tightly, suddenly overcome by emotion.

"I don't know what to do mum, he…I…they won't…" Said Dylan as her voice began to trail into unintelligible, hysterical, deep inhaling breaths. Quick to intervene her mother began to hush her and lightly rock her body back and forth.

"Dylan" Said Darla firmly after she comforted for a moment before holding Dylan's shoulders and pushed her back to look directly into her blurry eyes. Dylan smiled and coughed with an exhale as she heard her mother recognise her as her own daughter.

This must be one of the better days.

"Who are you talking about? Vincent?" Darla screwed her face in concentration as she tried to place the man who accompanied her daughter last time.

"Victor" Corrected Dylan before adding, "I don't think I can be with him"

Darla waited for Dylan to stifle her sniffles and responded, "No, I'm sure it was Vincent. Why do you say that? He seemed perfectly gentleman like last time. You're grandmother always used to say that you can judge a man by the width of his shoulders"

Dylan waited patiently for Darla to finish and nodded, her grandmother was well known for that saying, always picking men that offered her comfort and protection over the thin intellectuals. Not that Nanny Black hadn't done her fair share of browsing before settling on her type.

"Victor's different, he's not like us. He's selfish, arrogant, possessive, self-motivated and angry" Dylan depreciated before taking a deep breath, looking her mother in the eye and adding in a barely audible whisper, "But then there's times when I look at him and I see other things, kinder things…and I'm drawn to him"

The confession rippled a smile of Darla's face, "Just think about what you want Dylan, not what other people want you to want and-"

The door opened and cut off her sentence, introducing one of the irritating male nurses who falsely smiled,

"Aww everything okay in here? Dylan it's time to go now, your mom needs her rest after the medication"

Scowling at him made the man leave but Dylan turned back to her mother and held her worn hands in her own, rubbing them comfortingly. "I have to go now mam but I'll be back again, thanks for everything"

Darla nodded and puckered her lips to touch the side of Dylan's temple before letting her daughter's hands go and allowing her to leave. "See you soon Sweetie"

As Dylan held the door to leave she looked back when Darla continued with a final parting sentence,

"Give Vincent my love"

Curtly with a sincere smile Dylan nodded and left the room thinking over and over about what it was she wanted and who could give it to her. Options barricaded her and Dylan hit the side of a metal railing, bouncing off and trying to walk properly as another stabbing pain hit her head.

Dylan mentally diagnosed herself and decided she needed more rest, heading home as quickly as possible to sleep in her own bed for what seemed like the first time in a very long time.

She missed it.

But sleep didn't come as Dylan willed it, like a presentation her options seemed to flash onto the ceiling. Did she want Victor? More than freedom? More than her own life? Would he want her as a human? Or push another scarring experiment on her?

After the one hundredth question popped up Dylan squeezed the pillow in her hands without mercy and held it to her mouth as she groaned loudly and heightened it into a frustrated, angry scream. She cast the pillow aside and marched into the living room again, plonking on the sofa and jabbing the television remote to zap the screen into life.

After a few minutes of repeated crime investigation drama, Dylan's eyes wandered off and after a moment of brief day-dreaming they locked onto the one wall. The wall with five fatal indentation were deep feral claws had brutally scraped the surface.

She stood up and gingerly touched the rough surface, as a small piece of paint peeled away and floated to the floor Dylan brought her hand away.

Dylan clutched the hand to her chest, bringing its partner up to knot together.


	28. Lost

It was Sunday. Well, Sunday for Dylan, though she didn't doubt that ninety percent of the rest of the population were sleep soundly still. It was six am and Dylan was wide awake, unfazed by the broken pattern of sleep she barely had.

Pushing the duvet from her little body she rose up and stretched, wincing when the ugly crack of her rigid bones broke the silent room. As she walked past the living room and into the bathroom, Dylan ignored the scratches on the wall in front of her that had previously earned so much attention from her.

After a shower and making herself look presentable, Dylan plucked a large pastry from the kitchen and sat heavily on the sofa. Her eyes bore into the wall judgementally looking at the lacerations with a hard expression. The pastry crumbs flittered around her as she took small careful bites and landed neatly on the surface of her tight light blue jeans.

As the last bite melted in her mouth she let her thumb linger thoughtfully in her mouth, gently sucking the skin to relieve it of the sugar residual. Still looking at the wall Dylan suddenly snapped up and lashed around, walking quickly she grabbed the cluster of keys from the counter surface and pulled open the front door, marched out and forcefully slammed it behind her.

Hurriedly she flew down the stairs, wild tresses of her hair blowing behind her as she propelled forward. Dylan flung herself into the driver's seat of the car and ignited the engine, making the clutch roar angrily as her feet worked together impatiently.

Her eyes kept looking around the various streets, roads and mangle of houses. Each of them passed in a quick blur, cropping up again in a seemingly mirror like image of a previous home. Needing some form of distraction, Dylan switched on the radio with a light tap and hummed along to the backing track.

This wasn't right.

Dylan slowed the car down, settled it to a crawl and leant her upper body over the steering wheel of the car. As if by doing it, her senses would click into recognition of where she was. Nothing happened though, she'd been driving too long and this street wasn't right.

The house Victor commandeered, where Dylan had woken up after being rescued from the island, was nowhere in sight. Dylan wasn't stupid, she'd taken a good look at the outside of the house and tried to remember where it was. Looking back, Dylan thought it would have been wiser to actual note down the street, road or house number, anything.

Pulling over she hit the radio off again and but her lip nervously, the house looked vaguely familiar to one she'd passed leaving before. She got out and pocketed the keys. Maybe it was better if she went on foot from there to get a better sense of her whereabouts.

Nervously Dylan hunched slightly and flickered her eyes around her, wondering if anybody was watching her suspiciously.

It was after another hour of walking that Dylan began to get upset; she decided to head back to the car and drive again. An ache was beginning to massage the balls of her feet, easily getting past the thin fabric of her light slip on dolly shoes.

As Dylan walked determinedly back, a shower of rain began to spatter over the concrete, filling her ears with a rhythmic patter. Her feet splashed in pools of rainwater as Dylan began to jog, pulling her thin grey cardigan around her tightly for warmth.

Seeing the car she breathed a deep sigh of relief and ran to its side, grabbing the door she opened it and threw herself in to the shelter. A thin layer of moisture began to glide into her eyes and with absent humour Dylan exhaled a sharp, sarcastic laugh.

"Really?" She asked out loud, her hair was drenched and the rain began to batter the car as the inside reacted to her body heat and fogged up the windows with light grey mist. As she pulled out of the road, the noise of the windscreen wipers began to grate on her nerves as they desperately tried to fight for a clear view.

The more she drove the later it got, and Dylan was at a loss for what to do now. Her stomach was roaring in protest to being kept empty for most of the day and after a further five minutes of driving, she pulled into the drive thru of a fast food company and ordered.

The greasy stodge mass sat in the passenger seat, depleting slowly as Dylan extended her arm and kept taking handfuls regularly.

There was no way she could find the house, she was completely lost and it was pure chance that a street sign caught her attention and recognising it, Dylan was able to navigate her way back to her own home.

'Maybe it was a sign' Dylan resignedly thought as she parked and sat in the seat for a moment. What if getting lost and being unable to find the feral meant that subconsciously accepting him was a poor decision to make?

In a brief surge of anger Dylan slammed the steering wheel with the butt of her palm and opened the car door, making her way over to the apartments she lived with slow dragging steps, ignoring the icy rain around her.

Heavily she climbed the stairs and reaching the door to her home, she gripped the handle and slowly inched it open with her head lowered. Walking in she lightly shut the door and didn't move away, instead rested her forehead on the cold wood for a moment.

As Dylan turned she straightened up and gasped with shock and took a quick step back, her eyes growing with surprise. Leaning on the back corner of Dylan's quaint little blue sofa, with his trademark black coat and dark expression he stood.

Victor's expression didn't change as he locked eyes with her.

The pair waited for one another to make the move in silence, Victor began to speak then, in a counting, calculatingly threatening voice.

"I told you to come back" He said but Victor couldn't finish speaking another word.

Dylan looked at him as he straightened up and rolled his huge muscle clad shoulders. Her legs began to move, slowly taking a step, and then another, picking up a fast pace. As she neared him, Dylan threw her arms around his neck and locked her legs around his waist.

Victor remained steady despite her weight and in sync with the jump, Dylan smashed her lips onto his own, eagerly and passionately making them mould together.

In order to gain breath Dylan leant away but kept the closeness by pressing her body into Victor's and tightening her grip on him.

"I got lost"


	29. Strawberry Jam

"I missed you" Dylan confessed as she nestled into Victor, enjoying the closeness of their bodies and unison of their deep breaths. She twitched in shock when she heard him reply, Dylan thought Victor was asleep.

"Mm" He mumbled.

Dylan inclined back and looked at his face, hitting him lightly when she saw a satisfied smirk plaster over his face. "I thought you were sleeping" She yelled at the sneaky man, squealing when his arm returned her to original close proximity.

"I was" Victor stated, kneading her side with his claws. Dylan remained silent for a moment and kept staring at her company, analysing Creed's features as though he would vanish in a quick moment.

"I need food" Dylan said declaratively when her stomach groaned, Victor mumbled begrudgingly at her wriggling away but let her go, smirking again when she added, "I'll make lots". The girl was always so eager to please.

Content with her decision, apprehension and the tension built up inside Dylan had left and she trotted happily into her kitchen. Quickly she started to drag ingredients from the fridge and place them on the counter.

Opening the cellophane containers she plucked out cold meat and laid it atop the searing hot grill, stepping back as the contact resulted in a deep sizzling. As she fried, eggs, sausages and bacon, beans bubbled with lava globules of air pushing to the top of the saucepan and bread stood waiting in the toaster.

Waiting for it all to cook was a hassle and one again Dylan's stomach trembled with anger; she held it to try and soothe the pangs of hunger but decided to keep it occupied by eating an apple. She chose the greenest one from the bowl of fruit and began to slice it into thin crisps, eating each one after the knife subsequently cut the fruit into segments.

Dylan gasped suddenly, she had sliced too eagerly and the sharp knife had cut into the soft flesh of her palm. She transferred the fruit into her other hand, clutching it in the same hand that held the knife. Blood was seeping from the wound and Dylan didn't want the liquid to tinge her snack with a coppery tang.

She brought the cut to her lips and delicately traced the wound with her tongue, licking away the excess blood and covering the incision. As she brought her hand away, her eyes inspected it.

In disbelief Dylan squinted, narrowing her eyes to make sure she wasn't imagining what was happening. Either side of the wound was slowly, very slowly moving to meet the other, kitting together to seal up the small cut.

There's wasn't a mark on her skin.

Dylan jolted back and dropped both the fruit and knife to the floor with a clatter, she held the now healed hand in front of her and pushed herself into the counter, leaning away from it. "Holy shit" She breathed out in a small, barely audible whisper.

After a moment, Dylan turned down the heat on the cooking food, lashed around to pick up the discarded knife and raced into the bedroom.

"Victor!" She hollered desperately before she entered the bedroom, Dylan locked eyes with his bolt upright tense body and she ran in with wide eyes, desperately holding the knife in a clenched fist.

"What the hell are you doing?" Victor yelled at her, immediately spying the weapon in her hand, he wrenched it from her hand as Dylan marched forward and held it intentionally against her forearm.

The palms of Victor's hands grabbed Dylan's shoulders steady as she began to breathe quicker, the laboured breaths coming out in a rapid succession. He shook her briefly. "Answer me Dylan. What the hell is wrong?"

Dylan tried to slow her breathing but thoughts were racing through her head and she only managed to stammer out, "Cut me".

Victor wrinkled his brow in confusion and asked Dylan what she meant again, believing he misheard her. "Cut me!" Dylan shouted more urgently as she looked at him desperately. Victor scowled and took one hand of her shoulder, the talons extended slowly.

The soft skin of her collar bone relinquished against the firmness of his touch and quickly the nail of Victor's thumb nicked the skin in a slight curved scratch. His eyes and Dylan's own watched as the skin bled for a brief moment and then weaved together seamlessly again.

The deep green of Dylan's eyes went back to look analytically at Victor's expressionless face, he was just staring at the cut, or rather the skin where a cut had been a moment ago.

"Well?" She begged, trying to get an idea of what was going on.

"The gene worked" Victor stated still looking at her collarbone rather than Dylan's face. Dylan closed her eyes to try and calm down, so the gene, the gene to regenerate and heal her body had successfully manifested itself.

'Mutant' Dylan's inner monologue taunted. She shook her head, silently arguing with the voice. Never had she thought less of anyone because they genes were different, but it didn't stop a little worm of doubt crawl into her head.

In spite of herself, Dylan's little voice piped up with,

"Do you still want me?"

Victor was pulled from the frozen stare he set up and snapped his eyes to Dylan's, narrowing them as though it was the most stupid thing he'd ever had to hear.

He said nothing at first, but then his face angled and he inclined down. Submissively Dylan arched her head away from him, exposing the tight flesh of the side of her neck. Victor bit down sharply, twitching his lips into a smile when Dylan gasped.

His mouth lingered there before he pulled away and licked his lips in satisfaction,

"You still taste of it" Victor savoured with his eyes shut complacently.

"What?" Dylan asked intrigued as she rubbed the remaining red blood stains from her skin, wondering what Victor was talking about.

"Sweet" He said gradually, "…like strawberry jam"

_Well there you have it; 'Strawberry Jam' is complete!_

_Please review or message me your thoughts and comments!_

_Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed throughout, it's so motivating!_


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